


Make Me (Fall for You)

by Pixie_Queen24 (FallenAngel69)



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Oral Sex, Past Abuse, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 44,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23862874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenAngel69/pseuds/Pixie_Queen24
Summary: The Cook brother have inherited a major construction company from their uncle who was, as they find out, not a nice man. In moving to a different city to take over and rebrand the failing company, David meets Archie; a local do-gooder with a personal connection to the construction company and a considerable amount of malice towards the Cook empire.Also know as the fic wherein Archie should win humanitarian of the year and Cook is a selfish brat...or so Archie thinks.
Relationships: David Archuleta/David Cook, David Archuleta/Original Male Character, David Cook/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this fic was written and posted on live journal in 2009. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not know or own the people mentioned in this fic. It is, FICTION.

Chapter One

The chilly air of the apartment hit his face as soon as the door was open. He flipped the light switch, illuminating the small hallway. Immediately after closing the door and locking it securely, he moved to set the thermostat up a little bit. The weather was being fickle lately. The days were hot and the nights were cold. He hated the cold. Once he’d set the thermostat to a decent temperature, he made his way into the living area, flipping on the lights as he went.

The light on his answering machine was blinking. He hit the button on the top, listening to the messages as he walked to his bedroom, stripping out of his clothes as he went. The first message was from his mom who was just checking in on him. He would have to call her back later. The second one was from his boyfriend -- ex-boyfriend. He rolled his eyes at the sound of his voice asking if they could meet up for lunch sometime. Apparently, despite having cheated on him with one of his gal pals, the asshole still wanted to be friends.

He hurried back to the living room in order to hear better once the next message began. It was the voice of his closest friend, Brooke. He knew it was probably important, he could tell by her tone. _*beep*…Hey, Archie. I know you’re probably still at the shelter, but I needed to let you know as soon as possible about what’s going on tomorrow. Sorry if you get this on a short notice. You really do need to look in on getting a cell phone. Geez you’re hard to reach. Anyway, tomorrow, there are going to be some people visiting the shelter. It’s something that AC Construction is doing to improve their reputation. Not that anything could help, I’m sure. I just wanted to give you the heads up that the company’s president and vice-president will be there around 4pm along with the press and possibly a few news anchors. And don’t even think about not coming in…._ _*beep* ….. *beep* Alright, have you trained your answering machine to hang up on me like you do? That’s not cool, Arch. Not. Cool. So yeah, give me a call if you get this message before morning. And by morning, I mean before midnight! Loves ya, babe. Sweet dreams….*beep*_

That was the last of his messages. He quickly deleted the rest of them and finished changing into his flannel pajamas. That was all he needed. He didn’t want to have to deal with rich snobs who had absolutely no idea what it’s like to be without. AC Construction was no exception. They’d made millions at the expense of some of the very people that the shelter he volunteered at, provided a home for. The very thought of them wanting to profit on them even more made his blood boil. He looked up at the clock. It was quarter past midnight. Picking up the phone, he walked over to the couch and plopped down, dialing as he went.

“Hello?” Came the groggy female voice on the other line.

“Why did you agree to it, Brooke?”

The woman sighed heavily and he could hear the bed squeak beneath her as she moved. “Archie, I told you to call before midnight.”

“It’s only fifteen after. Now tell me why we’re helping the people that put thousands of others out of work. People lost everything they own because of AC Construction. I can’t believe they’d even have the audacity to ask us for a favor.”

She groaned again. “Archie, I didn’t agree to it. Believe me; I feel the same way about it as you do.”

“Then what’s…”

“Paula called the shots this time, hon.”

That surprised Archie. Paula was the lady that ran the shelter. She had always let them make the decisions. She just made sure the funds were there for them to do so. “But I thought she hated…”

“She does, just as much as the rest of us do, but the company offered up a hundred grand.”

Archie nearly choked on his own saliva as he sucked in a breath of air. “A-a hundred grand?”

“Yeah. Do you know how many more people we could feed with that amount of money?”

Archie nodded although he knew she couldn’t see him. “A lot.”

“Yeah. A lot. Now, do you understand why she did it?”

Even though Archie still hated AC Construction and everything that it stood for, he really did understand why this decision was made. “I guess I need to suck it up and be nice to them tomorrow, huh?”

“That would be a good plan, sweetie.” Brooke yawned loudly as if trying to let Archie know that she was ready to end their conversation.

He giggled softly. “Ok, Brooke. I get the point. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow. Get some rest Archie. You have to work in the morning and you can’t keep killing yourself with all the late hours at the shelter.”

“But I lo-”

“I know you do, Sweetie, but you need to take care of yourself. Sweet dreams.”

“Thanks, Brooke. Goodnight.”

Archie hung up the phone and tossed it onto the cushion beside of him. It was going to be an interesting day. He sat there, just thinking about it until his eyelids started to droop, indicating that it was probably time to go to bed. In the morning, he would return to his paying job at the local Super Mart for his 8-hour shift. Then he would head off to the shelter to face off with the lovely people of AC Construction. The last thought made him cringe.


	2. Chapter 2

After finishing his shift at the Super Mart, Archie walked down the street, going four blocks until he was at the shelter. His face squished up with distaste when he saw the shiny black limo parked along the curb. His immediate thought was that the money that went to pay for that could have fed half of the city for months. Then he chastised himself for being so bitter. He said a quick prayer to help him keep a calm and polite demeanor when he had to face the people he knew were inside, before opening the heavy door.

“Archie!” Brooke’s voice was pleasant as always.

Archie looked up at her with a smile. “Hey, Brooke.”

“Archie,” she began. “I’d like you to meet Mr. Cook and uh, Mr. Cook.”

Archie furrowed his brow. Both of them were Mr. Cook? How confusing was that going to be? He smiled politely and turned to face the two men standing next to Brooke. He had the same thought about their attire as he had about their car outside. He was surprised, however, at how young they looked. He was thinking that the president and vice president of a company like AC Construction should be old geezers. However, these guys were not old geezers. In fact, they were quite attractive. He mentally shook himself. The fact that that they were young and hot did not excuse the fact that they’d ruined the lives of so many people. “Hello,” he finally said as he shook the hand of the taller one. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Cook.” Then he turned his attention to the shorter, chubbier one. He assumed that he was the older of the two. “And you too, Mr.…” he giggled despite himself. “Cook.”

“Please,” the man said with a toothy grin. “It’s David.”

As Archie shook the man’s hand, he tried very hard not to let his true feelings be known. As if it weren’t bad enough that he had to interact with them, he also had to share a name with one of them. Of course, everyone he knew called him Archie, but still, it was just the thought.

“David and Andrew,” Brooke began with a smile. “Were just explaining to me what their plans are.”

“Aren’t you guys a little young to be running a company?” Archie asked, ignoring Brooke’s banter.

The shorter one spoke first. “Our uncle recently passed, and we inherited the company. The two of our older brother and us were like his own kids since he never had any. AC Construction is actually named in honor…”

Archie shrugged off the explanation, letting them know that he really didn’t need further details. “So you two aren’t responsible for the over filling slums? That’s good to know. I really wasn’t looking forward to meeting that person. So what do you plan to do about all the homeless people that AC Construction is responsible for?”

The one that he could now identify as David gave him a bewildered look, so Archie turned his attention to the younger, taller one that he remembered Brooke saying was Andrew. “How about you? Any ideas? I’d love to hear them.”

Brooke’s mouth fell open and her eyes showed the shock she was obviously feeling. “Archie!”

“What? It’s not like it can be ignored.”

“What’s he talking about?” David asked Andrew.

“I have no idea.”

Archie huffed loudly and stared at them in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.” He threw his hands in the air after getting another clueless look from the two men. “How can you not be aware of the situation? How long have you worked there? Today your first day?”

Brooke squeaked, seeing where this was headed. “Archie!” She scolded again. This time she gently grabbed his shoulder and led him away. “Excuse us for a moment, please,” she said politely. “What has gotten into you?” She asked once she had him far enough away. She wasn’t used to this kind of behavior from Archie.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You don’t treat people like that.”

“I had a long day,” Archie replied.

Brooke glanced over at the two men who were speaking quietly to one another, sending curious glances their way. “Fine. We will talk about this later. Until then, go help Elsie with dinner.”

“But…”

“Go,” Brooke demanded with a point of her finger.

David glared at her but his shoulders slumped in defeat. He sulked off towards the kitchen just knowing that Elsie was going to make him peel potatoes. He hated peeling potatoes.

Brooke returned to the two men and smiled warmly. “Sorry about that. Archie isn’t normally like this.”

“Um,” David began. “What exactly was he talking about?”

Sighing, Brooke motioned for them to follow her into Paula’s office. Once inside, they sat down. “AC Construction has acquired a lot of real estate in the past. Of course, it was always under the pretence that they were there to help struggling businesses, but you probably already know this.”

“No, actually we don’t,” Andrew replied.

“How could you not?” Brooke asked, but then she realized that, of course, even if they had known about it they would never admit to it. “You know what? Never mind. You guys just do what you came here to do. I’d rather let you redeem your reputation and get it over with than sit here and listen to lies to cover up one of the worst deceptions that this town has ever seen.”

“Look, lady,” Andrew said, scooting to the edge of his seat. “We are kind of new to the game, so we’re not aware of a lot of…”

“Drew,” David interrupted. “Calm down.”

Andrew looked at his brother with question, but conceded.

David leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. He clasped his hands together and looked intently at the blonde woman on the other side of the desk. “What Andrew is trying to say is that our uncle obviously ran a very dirty business. My brothers and I were uninformed of that because we worked in the Missouri office until just a month ago when Uncle Arthur passed on. We’re slowly finding out several things about our dear uncle that is rather difficult to handle. Now I know that you’re probably thinking that we’re feeding you a bunch of BS, but we’re really not. In fact, we would really appreciate it if you could help us understand what -- Archie, is it? -- was talking about.”

“Seriously? You guys have never worked in this city? I didn’t even know there was more than one branch.”

“Yeah,” David continued. “There are actually three. This one is the main one, though. The others are relatively small.” He waited for Brooke to speak again, but when she didn’t, he continued. “We’re not bad people. We want to help right the wrongs.”

“I admire you for that,” Brooke said, her voice taking on a kinder tone. She cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be that simple. What Archie was referring to is the overflowing slums in this city. AC Construction conned people into signing contracts with them for the remodeling of their buildings to help improve their business and such. When all was said and done the small businesses are so far in debt that they’d be forced to sell or file bankruptcy. That’s where your company came in and ‘helped’ them out again by relieving the owners of the property. A lot of people lost their jobs. Therefore, many of them lost their homes as well.”

“That’s terrible,” David said solemnly. “I can’t believe that Uncle Arthur would do something like that.”

Andrew jeered. “Well apparently we didn’t know him as well as we thought.”

Brooke gave them an empathetic look. “I’m sorry you had to find this out. It can’t be easy.”

David continued to stare at the back of the desk, mulling over the stuff he’d just learned. “No. No, it’s not an easy pill to swallow at all.” After another moment, he finally looked up at her. “I think it’s great that you’re helping to run this shelter.” 

Brooke nodded with a warm smile. “Well, shelters like this one can only help so many people. We don’t have enough funds or volunteers to do much more than what we’re already doing.”

“I want to help,” David said without missing a beat. He was rewarded with incredulous looks from both Brooke and his brother. “I’ll start tonight. Whatever you want me to do. The press is already here, so we can kill two birds with one stone.”

Brooke stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was serious. “You want to help out? Like in the mess hall?”

“If that’s what you want me to do, then yeah.”

Brooke smiled. “Great. I’ll let Elsie know she’ll have an extra server tonight.” She turned to Andrew. “Will you be helping also?”

“He does well with the press. Let him handle that,” David interrupted, smiling brightly at his brother.

*****

“What?” Archie asked in horror. “You have got to be kidding me! Why are you putting him with me?”

“Because you’re the best volunteer we have, Archie. You’ll train him well.”

Archie scoffed. “Why bother training him at all. He’ll not come back after he gets his bit of press time anyway. Why would he care about these people?”

“He seems nice, Archie. These guys are not the ones to blame.”

“Whatever.” Archie waved her off and went about peeling more potatoes, all the while mumbling to himself about how ridiculous these people were.

*****

“Hi,” David attempted when he saw Archie emerge from the kitchen carrying some sort of flowered cloth in his hands.

Archie rolled his eyes and headed over to where David was sitting. “Here, put that on.” He tossed him the flowered cloth that turned out to be an apron. “I’d hate for you to ruin that suit.”

David stared at Archie wondering if he was like this with everyone or if it was just him. “Thanks.”

“Have you ever even been inside a shelter before today?”

“You don’t like me, do ya kid?”

“It’s not necessarily you. It’s people like you.”

David furrowed his brow. “People like me?”

“Yeah. You know the ones who have had everything handed to them on a silver platter. Never worked a day in their life for anything.”

“I worked,” David argued. “I work damn hard for everything I have.”

Archie snickered. “Sure. Come on. We have to get the food into the steam-table before the rush.”

He started to follow him, but Brooke cleared her throat from the corner. David looked at her with question as she walked towards him. “Don’t mind Archie. I don’t think it’s anything personal. He’s just got some baggage.”

“Baggage?” David couldn’t help but ask. He knew it was none of his business, but he couldn’t help being interested. There was just something about the young man that drew David in.

Brooke sighed. “One of the first businesses that AC Construction ‘helped’ was where his dad worked.” She left it at that. She figured that if he found out more it would be because Archie had come around and talked to him. Otherwise, he’d never know. It was Archie’s story to tell.

David stared at the door in which Archie had gone through. No wonder he had such resentment. Suddenly his new mission was to change Archie’s mind about him and his newly inherited company.


	3. Chapter 3

“So what’s your deal?” David asked, as he stood beside of Archie in the serving line.

“Excuse me?” Archie glared up at him with a look of disgust.

David smiled humbly at the man standing in front of him. He plopped a scoop of mashed potatoes on to the plate he was holding. “There has to be some reason that you’re showing hostility to me.”

Archie rolled his eyes. “Why do you care what I think about you anyway? Don’t you have loads of goons just falling over themselves to send you praise?”

“You’re unbelievable.”

Archie shrugged his shoulders. “Well, it’s a good thing that I’m not like you then, because I really don’t care what you think about me.”

David decided not to ask any more questions at that point. The younger man was obviously having more issues than he could imagine. He looked over to the corner where his brother was standing with Paula and the news reporters. He smiled and waved as the camera panned around the room. Of course, he didn’t miss Archie’s snort of disapproval. He was pretty sure if he turned to face him at that moment there would be a scowl on his face as well.

*****

Brooke and Archie were left with clean-up duties in the mess hall while all the other volunteers were busy with the kitchen. “So how did it go with David today?”

“How was it supposed to go? I showed him how to serve and he did it.”

“So it went well?”

Archie tossed some more trash into the bag he was carrying with him. “I…I guess it did.” After all, the guy didn’t complain about a little manual labor. Heck, he didn’t even complain when a hyperactive little girl spilled her grape juice all over him. Archie grinned, remembering the look on his face when he realized what had happened. Of course, that look didn’t last long. It was replaced by that enormous smile that the guy seemed to have painted on his face. That was annoying too, Archie decided.

“He’s not such a bad guy, Archie. You should lighten up on him a bit.” She looked away when Archie glared at her. “Well, I’m just saying. He can’t really help what happened before he took over the company.”

Archie knew deep down that Brooke was probably right, but he just couldn’t make himself willingly associate with people from the company that put his family on the street when he was only 8 years old. “He’ll have to prove that to me,” Archie said. “Until then, he’s still an imbecile in my opinion.”

Brooke was still stunned at Archie’s behavior towards someone he didn’t even know until that day. “You working tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I have the six to two shift. I’ll be here around four again. I have to do a little grocery shopping while I have the time.”

“David will be here at 4:30. I told him you would teach him about handling fund raisers before dinner.” 

Archie glared at her, his eyes shooting daggers her way. “Why do I suddenly feel like I’ll be sick tomorrow?”

“Archie…” Brooke scolded. “Do good unto evil.”

Mumbling about how he would like to do unto evil, Archie went back to cleaning up. Brooke smiled to herself as she too went about her task.

*****

David sat staring out the window of the limo as it took him and Andrew back to the office. He had a million thoughts running through his mind. He was so distracted that he didn’t hear his brother talking to him.

“Dave?” Andrew paused, noticing that his words weren’t being heard. “Dave!”

David jumped, causing his head to bump against the window when his hand slipped from beneath his chin. “Hmm? What?” He looked at Andrew he was looking at him with a raised brow behind his glasses. “Sorry.”

“Did you even hear a word I said?”

David stared blankly at Andrew, searching his mind for something that he may have heard him say. “Um…sorry?”

“Oh don’t worry about it. It wasn’t important anyway.” He sat back against the seat. “So what were you thinking today?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well just, why do you want to help that shelter so much?” He caught the look that David gave him. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of charity, but we have a company to turn around.”

“I realize that,” David said with a nod of his head. “I also know that in order to get this company back on it’s feet, we need to earn the public’s respect again. No one is going to hire us for anything if they think were a bunch of heartless crooks.”

Andrew sighed in defeat. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well first of all, we need to do a little research into what Uncle Arthur was up to. Surely, there are records somewhere. If not, some of those employees have been there since the beginning. I want to find out as much as we can so we know what we’re dealing with.”

“Good plan. Then what?”

“Well, I am going back to the shelter where I am going to continue to polish our tarnished name.”

“And what am I supposed to do?”

“My guess would be more research. Unless you would like to come with me.”

“I’ll see what I can dig up.”

“There is a lot to be done.” David tapped on his door for a few moments, looking out the window again. “You know that guy at the shelter? Archie?”

Andrew lifted his gaze to his brother. “Yeah,” he replied skeptically. “What about him?”

“Something happened there.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know yet. Brooke said his dad worked at one of the businesses that Arthur shut down.”

“Ahh,” Andrew said with an understanding gesture. “So now you want to make him your charity case?”

“No. I’m just curious.” Silence ensued after that statement and David went back to his thoughts.

Andrew didn’t though. He watched his brother carefully for a few moments before it finally dawned on him. “Oh my God,” he said out loud causing David to look up at him.

“What?”

“You’re attracted to him.”

David didn’t even bother trying to deny it. His little brother knew him too well to even try. “Maybe I am.”

“Dave! He’s just a kid.”

“He’s eighteen,” David argued. That was one little tidbit of information he’d managed to get out of him before he’d left the shelter.

“And you’re twenty-six.”

“Age is only a number, little brother. Remember the thirty-two year old you dated last summer?”

Andrew scowled at his brother for bringing that up.

“Furthermore, I don’t know if I would call it attraction. More like an infatuation.”

“There’s a difference?”

David smiled. “I don’t really know anything about him. There’s just _something_. It’s like he’s burned into my mind and I don’t think it will go away until I know the whole story.”

Groaning, Andrew tossed his head back against the seat. This was not the first time that David had latched onto something or someone he knew nothing about. It usually ended badly. “Why are you like this?”

David shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just who I am. So baby bro, are you up for a late night?”

“Call me that again and I’ll punch you. And might I ask, a late night of doing what?”

“Research of course.”


	4. Chapter 4

Andrew glared at his brother who was buzzing around the file room as if it weren’t two in the morning. “What now?”

“I think I found something.”

“Praise God.”

Chuckling, David pulled the file from the box and moved to sit down in the swivel chair next to Andrew. “When I called Brooke a couple of hours ago, she told me that his last name was Archuleta.” David furrowed his brow as he opened the yellow folder. “What nationality is that?”

“How should I know?”

“Jeff Archuleta. Owned a small diner called Archie’s. Awe, how cute.” He didn’t, however, miss the look Andrew was sending his way. It made him grin. He secretly -- or not so secretly -- loved to annoy his younger brother. “Says that Jeff contracted ACC to remodel. Turned out the building, according to the contractors, was out dated and needed major repairs in order to pass inspection. By the time it was finished he ended up putting it on the market in order to foot the bill.”

“Wouldn’t there have been some kind of small business financial aid or something?” Andrew asked.

“All that depends on the business it’s self. Maybe they didn’t see it as a good investment,” David reasoned as he flipped further through the file. “The building was later demolished.”

“Apparently the whole block across from the shelter used to be a little strip of shops and restaurants,” Andrew added as he too looked through files. “All that’s been replaced by larger businesses. What are you willing to bet that ACC built every one of those buildings and made a huge profit on the real estate?”

*****

When Archie woke up that morning, he was full of dread, but determined to make the most of his day without letting the fact that he’d be spending yet another evening with one of the Cook brothers. He couldn’t bring himself to call him David. It was just displeasing to him for some reason. The whole time that he’d been with him the night before, he had no reason to call him by name because his end of the conversation was usually answering questions.

He decided to go see his mom after his shift ended. He figured they could go grocery shopping together. He hadn’t seen her in a few days, so she was surprised to see him when he walked in the front door. 

“Davey?” She asked. “I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Hey, mama.” He walked over to the chair where she sat, mending an old pair of slacks. He leaned over and gave her a hug. “How are you today?”

She smiled up at him. “I’m well. You sister is in the kitchen if you would like to see her.”

Archie grimaced at the mention of his sister. “Claudia?” He whispered her name so that she wouldn‘t overhear. He knew it had to be her because his other siblings were still in school.

“Yes, dear. She’s taking your brother and sisters to a movie tonight. She’s just waiting for them to get home from school.”

“Um, actually, I came by to see if you would like to come with me to the market. I know you haven’t been in a week or so. I could help you.”

She nodded. “Just let me change clothes.” She set the slacks that she was working on to the side, carefully sliding the needle into the spool of thread.

Archie thought about waiting outside while she changed. It would be easier to avoid Claudia out there. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his sister. Things had been strained between them ever since he came out three years before. She just had a hard time dealing with his sexuality, and she was constantly trying to change his mind. He’d rather avoid her than listen to the constant tirade. He turned to go towards the front door, but it was too late.

“Well hi there, Davey!”

Plastering a smile on his face, he turned to see her standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. “Hi, Claud.”

“I thought I heard you. Taking Mama, shopping?”

“Yeah. I need to get groceries, so I thought I would ask her along.”

“She needs to get out. It’s good that you take her.”

Archie nodded. “Yeah.”

“So how is um, Nate?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Archie replied. “We’re not together anymore.”

Claudia grinned. “Thank God. “ She took a bite of the apple she was holding, and chewed thoughtfully as she watched her brother’s expressions change with nearly each blink of his eyes. “Davey?”

“Really, Claudia. I’m not in the mood to hear you talk about how you think it’s wrong that I’m gay. We’ve been through it all before.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. What I was going to say is that Nate was all wrong for you. You need someone who will treat you right.”

Archie looked at his sister in disbelief. “Huh?”

She simply smiled and turned to go back in the kitchen. He would have followed her, but Lupe returned from changing. “Ready to go, sweetie?”

“Um…” He was still staring in the direction Claudia had gone. “Yeah.” He turned to smile at his mom. “Let’s go.” Lupe stepped into the kitchen to tell Claudia that she was leaving. Then as the two of them walked side by side down the street to the bus stop, Archie asked, “What’s with Claudia?”

“What do you mean?”

“She just passed up a chance to condemn my sexuality.”

Lupe laughed lightly at the response that Archie gave her. “You sister met someone extraordinary. He’s helping her learn to cope with the things she does not understand. Something you and I could never do.”

“Wow. He must be quite a guy.”

“He’s very nice.” Lupe smiled as they arrived at the bus stop just in time to make the bus. “You should come over tonight and meet him. He’s joining us for dinner after they return from the movie.”

“I’d love to, Mama, but I’m working at the shelter tonight.”

With a sigh, Lupe slid into an empty seat on the bus. “You’re always working at the shelter. Davey, when will you have your fill? Don’t get me wrong, son. I love charity, and I know how much it means to you, but you have to give yourself a little time.”

“I know. I will soon. It’s just that tonight I promised Brooke to help this guy learn about fund raising and stuff.”

“A new volunteer?” Lupe asked, praying that it was someone who could take a little bit of the load off of her son’s shoulders.

“Well, I don’t know if I would call him a volunteer.”

“You sound like you don’t like him very much.” Lupe was quick to pick up on Archie’s tone of voice. It wasn’t the norm for him.

“He owns AC Construction.”

Lupe looked at him with wide eyes. “Arthur Cook is volunteering at the shelter?”

Archie scowled. The thought of that ever having been a possibility put more of a bitter taste in his mouth than working with David did. “No. Not Arthur. His nephew. Apparently he and his brother inherited the place when the old geezer died.”

“Now, now, baby-boy.”

“Sorry, Mama.”

“I didn’t even know he passed on.”

“Probably no one cared enough to pay attention. Perhaps they were too busy celebrating?”

Lupe couldn’t disagree with that. Arthur Cook had been a despicable man, and had more enemies than one could count. In all honesty, she was surprised that someone hadn’t murdered him before old age had a chance to devour him. “We mustn’t speak of the dead in such a way,” She scolded softly as she put a callused hand on top of Archie’s own.

The rest of the ride to the grocery store was spent in silence. Only when they were walking down the produce isle did either of them speak again. “So, dear boy. Tell me about this nephew of Arthur Cook’s. Is he anything like his uncle?”

“I only met him last night. I’m not entirely sure what to think of him. Although, he did surprise me with his eagerness to help out.”

“Oh?”

Archie picked up a head of lettuce and examined it while he answered his mother’s questions. “Yeah. He wants to clean up the company’s reputation. He seems to think that press and a little bit of him acting like he cares will help with that.”

“Perhaps he really does care?”

“Not likely, Mama. Since when does the wealthy care about the poor?”

“There are exceptions, Davey. Remember Mr. Seacrest?”

“Our old landlord?” Archie asked. “Hardly an exception, Mother. He wasn’t a millionaire.”

“But he wasn’t poor either.”

Archie chuckled at his mother’s reasoning. “Must you see the good in everyone?”

“Yes. It makes life more beautiful. Perhaps you should practice searching for the good in people.”

“Yeah, Mama. Right on that,” he said as he tossed a stalk of celery into his cart. “I tried it with Nate, ya know? Look where that got me.”

With a heavy sigh, Lupe surrendered to her son’s reasoning.

As they turned the corner, Archie gasped and turned quickly. “Oh crap!”

“What on Earth?” Lupe was perplexed by Archie’s sudden need to hide behind a display of Pop tarts.

“Archie?” Came the male voice from a bit further down the aisle. 

Archie frowned as Lupe looked ahead at the man who had said her son’s nickname. He was holding a box of Cap’n Crunch in his hand and trying to see around the display where Archie had gone. He looked to be in his twenties, wearing a pair of faded jeans, a t-shirt, and a red Kansas City Chief’s cap. Lupe looked at her son who finally stepped back into view. “Hi.”

“I thought that was you,” the man who Lupe still did not recognize approached them. She grinned as he gave her a bright smile.

Lupe looked from the man to her son. “Son, where are your manners?”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry. Mama, this is David Cook.” He looked up at David. “This is my mom, Lupe.”

“Ah!” David took her hand in his. “Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Archuleta.” He didn’t miss the confused look that crossed Archie’s face when he said their last name.

“You too, Mr. Cook.” Lupe glanced over at Archie, giving him a small smirk. “So you now own AC Construction?”

David nodded his head and tucked the box of cereal that he was still carrying under his arm. “Yes. I’m hoping to make some major changes, though.” He adverted his attention to Archie momentarily. “I spent most of the night researching Uncle Arthur’s methods. I must say that I am appalled by the things I have found.”

Lupe smiled empathetically. “Well, your uncle wasn’t exactly a respectable man,” she said softly. “I’m sorry that you had to find out this way.”

David looked at Archie who in turn found the floor more interesting. David realized that the younger man must have spoken to his mother about him. He wondered what he’d told her. “As am I.” He sighed. “I would like to apologize on behalf of the rest of my family for any wrong doings that may have been bestowed upon your family.”

Archie gasped; surprised that David had in fact done research. Otherwise, how could he even have a clue that anything had happened to his family. Also, he didn’t much like the fact that he was looking into his past. “Um,” He took a quick look at his watch. “Oh goodness, look at the time. Mama, we need to be finishing up.”

Lupe gave her son a quizzical look, but decided to not question him. Yet. “Oh. Ok. Well, thank you, Mr. Cook. I appreciate the apology, but I know it’s not your fault.”

With an appreciative smile, David stepped to the side to let them by. “Again, it was nice meeting you. See you this evening, Archie.”

“Yeah. Later,” Archie replied.

As they walked, Lupe looked back, grinning as David headed towards the checkout counter. “He’s cute,” she said, turning her attention back to Archie who had stopped walking and was staring at his mother in horror.

“Mama!”

Lupe laughed mischievously. “What? He is. Although, he kind of resembles Nate. Don’t you think?”

Scoffing, Archie went on about his shopping. As if he didn’t already have enough reasons to hate the guy.

*****

Before he knew it, Archie was sitting in Paula’s office with David, going over the various types of fundraisers that the shelter had done in the past. He loved fund raising so he wasn’t surprised when explaining them to David felt normal. Of course, it was a little easier to forget who he was when he wasn’t wearing Armani. “I personally like these,” Archie said as he handed him a concert flyer. “However, if you don’t have the right connections, they’re almost impossible to pull off.”

“I could help with this kind of thing. I have several connections back in Missouri. They‘re not…”

His words were interrupted when the door burst open, causing both men to startle a little. Archie glared at the man responsible for the interruption. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re not answering my calls.”

“You should take that as a hint that I don’t want to talk to you.”

“David…I’ve said I’m sorry a hundred times.”

Archie sighed heavily and looked at David who had his head cocked to one side with a confused look on his face. “Da…” The name died on his lips. It was still too weird to call him by his first name. “Um, could you excuse us?”

With a nod, David stood up. “Sure.” He brushed past the man who was standing behind him. “I’ll just wait out here.”

Archie waited for the door to close before he looked back up at Nate. “I’m sorry doesn’t erase what you did.”

*****

David leaned against the wall next to the door and waited. Something about the way the man had looked at him combined with the unmistakable scent of alcohol told him he probably shouldn’t go too far away. He wasn’t surprised when he began hearing their voices rise from inside the room he’d just been in. However, he was surprised when he heard what sounded like a desk being cleared off.

“Nate, what the heck are you doing? That’s Paula’s!”

“And you’re mine!”

“No, I’m not! You pretty much ruined that.”

“It meant nothing!”

“That’s hardly the point!”

“You’re mine, David!”

“I’m not some piece of property, Nate! Get your hands off of me!”

David furrowed his brow when he heard something slam up against the wall on the other side of where he was standing. He only listened for a moment longer as the banging noises and the shouting grew louder, before he turned and tried to open the door. It was locked. He pounded his fist against the door. “Archie?”

“Fuck off!”

“Shut up, Nate!”

Then David heard something slam up against the wall again, this time it was followed by an agonizing yelp.

“Dang it Nate, you’re hurting me!”

“Aww, what’s wrong Davey? I thought you liked it rough once in a while.”

“Stop! Nate! You’re drunk. Don’t you dare!”

“You know you like it. Stop squirming!”

That was the last straw for David. He threw his body against the door with as much force as he could muster. The door gave more quickly than he anticipated, and he stumbled into the room to find Nate glaring at him over his shoulder where he had Archie pinned to a wall. “Let go of him.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Nate asked, but didn’t move to let Archie go.

Archie bowed his head, hiding from David’s gaze.

“I’ll be your worst nightmare if you don’t get your hands off of him,” David replied in an angry, yet strangely calm voice.

Nate let go of Archie, shoving him slightly as he turned and stalked out of the room. “It’s not over Archuleta.”

David watched him leave the room, slamming the broken door behind him. He then turned his eyes upon Archie who was standing with his back to him. He remained quiet because he could tell the boy was fumbling with his belt buckle. He’d not missed the shame in his eyes when he’d entered the room. So he did what he felt was respectable and waited for Archie to pull himself together.

A few minutes later, Archie did turn around. He immediately went about cleaning up the mess of papers and other things that had been swept of off Paula’s desk. He only looked up at David briefly as the older man began to help him pick up the items. He wondered when David was going to start asking questions or insulting him.

David sat back down in the chair he’d been in earlier, once everything was put back in place. Still no words had been spoken. He simply lifted the concert flyer that he’d been looking at.

Feeling humiliated, Archie began to speak. His words were, however, cut off by David speaking at the same time.

“As I was saying, my connections in Missouri are mostly unsigned bands, but they’re great.” He looked up at Archie as if he’d just realized that he’d said something. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to cut you off. What were you starting to say?”

“I can take care of myself.”

David studied him for a moment before shrugging. “I didn’t say that you couldn’t. Guys like that just piss me off.”

Archie looked at him curiously, as he too dropped into the chair he’d been in earlier. He wasn’t sure how to take David not saying anything specifically about what had just happened. He wasn’t used to that kind of behavior. Normally people would be all up in his business, demanding to know what was going on and if Nate was abusive and if he’d ever hurt him. Of course, that annoyed him, so he should be grateful that David wasn’t doing that. However, his lack of concern was annoying too. He couldn’t help be curious about what was going through his mind. After all, he was sure David Cook did not deal with things like that on a daily basis. “Aren’t you even going to ask about what just happened?”

David stopped reading the paper and his eyes lifted to meet Archie’s once more. “I figured that it was your business. If you wanted me to know, you would tell me.”

Archie nodded. “Oh.”

“You ok?”

Archie nodded, having suddenly become much more comfortable. “Yeah. He…he was just drunk. He gets a little crazy when he’s had too much.”

David didn’t speak. He only nodded, letting Archie know that he understood what he was saying. Of course, David wasn’t stupid by any means. He could see through Archie’s excuse. He wondered how many times he’d used it before, and if there were other ones.

“Ok. So. Where were we?” Archie looked back down to the pile of pamphlets and fund raising material in front of him.

“Your name is David too?” David asked, ignoring the question.

Archie nodded. “Yeah, but only my family and Nate actually call me that.”

“That’s so weird. What were the odds of us having the same name?”

Archie shrugged. “Seeing as how millions of people are named David, I guess the odds were pretty good. It’s kinda weird though. If I call you David, I feel like I’m somehow talking to myself.”

The frustrated look on Archie’s face only served to amuse David. “Well, I never said you had to call me David. Just not Mr. Cook. That makes me feel old.”

“How about just Cook?”

David chewed his lower lip and thought about it for a moment. It wasn‘t like he hadn’t been called that before. In fact, a lot of people he knew back home referred to him as just ‘Cook.’ That had carried over from his years of playing baseball. “I guess that’ll do. My old baseball coach and teammates called me that. Just don’t go calling me Cookie. ”

“You played baseball?” For some reason, Archie didn’t see the older David as much of an athlete.

David nodded as he looked back down to the paper in his hand. “MmmHmm. In high school.”

Archie sensed that David didn’t really want to go into further detail so he decided to not ask any questions and return the favor by respecting David’s privacy as he had his. It’s not like he really cared anyway. Right?

*****

David had been working on and off at the shelter for a week now, and every night he was ‘training’ with Archie. It was always a surprise for him. After the episode with the ex-boyfriend, David assumed that Archie had decided to stop being nasty to him, but he was wrong once again. He never knew which side of Archie he would get. It was like he had a switch. This night in particular, Archie seemed to have gone back to being snarky. He snapped at anything that David said, and eventually, David just stopped talking to him.

After serving up dinner, David went wandering through the people at the shelter looking for one person in particular. He was just about to give up his search when he spotted the mass of blonde curls moving towards the back exit. He politely pushed his way through the hordes of people and caught up with her as she walked out into the alley. “Brooke?”

“Hey, Dave. What are you doing out here? She asked, before pushing the lid to the garbage receptacle back.

He stepped forward and took the large bag of trash from her. He tossed it into the bin and wiped his hands on his jeans.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I have a question.”

She raised a brow at him and closed the lid on the dumpster. “Ok. Shoot.”

“Is Archie bipolar or something?”

The question was so shocking to her that she actually started laughing. Like bent over, holding her stomach because she was laughing so hard, laughing.

Chuckling, David threw his hands up. “Given the way he’s treated me, that is a perfectly valid question. I don’t know why you are laughing.”

She gasped for air a few times before she could control herself enough to speak. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting that to be the question you asked,” she explained. “Bipolar? Why would you think that, anyway?” 

“I think it’s the whole one day he’s rude and spiteful, the next he’s nice and helpful thing.”

“Awe, sorry ‘bout that. Archie’s trying really hard not to like you.”

Although he was quite taken aback by her blunt, honesty, he appreciated it. He also thought that was absolutely ridiculous. “That’s ludicrous. He doesn’t even know me.”

“I know.” She began to walk back towards the door in which she’d come out.

“Does he treat everyone like this?”

She shook her head. “No. Not usually. This surprises me as much as it does you. Archie is undeniably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known.”

“That makes me feel better.”

Sighing, Brooke slung an arm across his shoulders. “He needs reassurance that you’re really not like your uncle.”

“The simple fact that I’m here should attest to that.”

“You’re right, and it does say something about you. However, Archie’s not going to be that easy to convince. His wounds are deep…and many of them are still raw.”

David noticed that hint of sadness in her voice as she finished that sentence. He wanted to ask what she meant, but he decided not to. He would just have to find out on his own. He had a sneaking suspicion that some of them might have to do with the crazy ex-boyfriend.

*****

David was deep in thought while sorting through a bunch of files in his office when the door suddenly flew open, startling him to the point that he knocked over his cup of tea. “Shit!” He jumped up and grabbed several tissues from the box that set on the edge of his desk. “Scare the hell out of me, why don‘t you? Do you know how to knock?”

“What is going on?” Andrew asked, not bothering to mask the fury in his voice.

“What are you talking about?” David asked with a sigh as he sopped up the hot tea as best he could with tissues.

“Well, I got in about five minutes ago, and I’ve been informed that you went on a firing spree this morning. Fifteen people! What the hell, Dave?”

“Oh. That.” It was true. He’d spent a late night at the office again, and that morning he was prepared to let several employees go. “They were involved in Arthur’s scam.”

“You fired a janitor.”

“He was just lazy.” David grinned. “And for your information, I didn’t fire him. I suspended him for three days.”

Andrew stepped closer and looked at the file that was on his desk. He shook his head and picked it up. “Archuleta,” He huffed. “Dave, I know where this is going. You need to stop.”

“You know nothing, Drew.”

“I know that you’re going to wind up getting yourself hurt again.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You! Man, you get so hooked on these people, and most of them don’t give a shit about you. Not every attraction that you feel should be acted upon.”

“Archie is different.”

“You don’t even know him, Dave. How can you say that?”

“I feel it.”

“Just like you felt it with Allen?”

David chose to ignore that question. He tossed the last hand full of tissues into the trashcan and sat back down in his chair. “I’m going to be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Andrew sighed and sunk down into the chair on the opposite side of David’s desk. “I just don’t want to see you hurt again.”

“I’m not going to get hurt.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m more cautious now than I was back then.” David hoped that would appease his brother. He hated the fact that his last relationship had ended so badly that Andrew worried about him every time he got interested in someone. “Allen was a huge learning block. I won’t be making that mistake again anytime soon.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow at his brother, but decided to let it go. For now.


	5. Chapter 5

Brooke sat at Paula’s desk, writing out checks for her vendors while a few volunteers decorated the mess hall for their Fourth of July celebration. She was surprised when David knocked on the door and peeked inside. “David? Why are you here?”

“I thought I would come over and help out, seeing as how we’re closed today,” he said as he entered the office and took a seat in the chair across from her.

“But I thought you were going home for a few days.”

“I changed my mind.”

Brooke cocked her head to the side and studied David for a moment. “How’s it going with Archie? Has he been any nicer to you lately?”

Even though his halfhearted laugh gave him away, he still answered. “It’s about the same.” The only thing that had really changed was the fact that David no longer needed training. Therefore, he wasn’t playing tag-a-long with Archie anymore. Of course, that never stopped him from trying to interact with the younger man every time he had the chance. “Anyway, what would you like me to do today?”

“Well, since Archie’s not here, you could help me with the delivery that should be getting here soon.”

“Where is he, by the way? I thought he was usually here all day on Wednesdays.”

“Usually, but his Mom is having a cook-out this afternoon, and he didn’t want to miss it. He will be here later though.”

David nodded, hiding his disappointment. Even though Archie was still sometimes snappy with him, he enjoyed being in his presence. There was undoubtedly just something about him that drew him in. Of course, he hadn’t been able to find out anything more about him, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

*****

David and Brooke were in the stock room putting the delivery away when Archie ran into the room. “Oh my gosh! Brooke…” he panted.

Brooke looked up from where she was stacking bags of cake mix. “Archie? You ok?”

He bent over, putting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “Y-yeah. I just ran all the way here.”

David who had stopped placing cans on the rack to make sure Archie was indeed ok, went back to shelving cans.

“I was at Mama’s cook-out. Everyone was there including Claudia. You know how I told you the other day that she’s done a complete three-sixty and started being nice to me? Well, you will not believe who she is dating!” Archie flailed about with wide eyes.

“Who’s Claudia?” David asked.

Archie hadn’t noticed that he was in there when he first came in, so he was slightly startled. “Um…I thought you were going back to Missouri.”

“I was, but then I decided to stay behind. I’m going to visit the family in a few weeks instead.”

“Oh. Ok. Um, Claudia is my sister. She’s always onto me about being gay. She hates it, actually!” Archie giggled and looked back at Brooke. “She’s dating Adam!” The look on Brooke’s face was priceless and that caused Archie to break into another fit of giggles.

“Nuh-uh.” Brooke stood staring at Archie in what looked to be disbelief. “Adam? As in the guy at the Rainbow Dolphin?”

Archie nodded, the smile never leaving his face. “That is why she’s been so nice to me lately. Mama told me that she’d met someone, but never in a million years would I have thought of him!” He glanced over at David who had a bewildered look on his face. He laughed giddily. “You see, Adam is a bar tender and entertainer down at this little night club on the corner of 5th and Main. If you’ve ever seen Queer as Folk, think Babylon.” He nodded when he saw the smile forming on David’s lips. “Yeah! What’s so awesome about this is that Adam is openly bi-sexual. Clearly the last person I would ever expect my sister to date.”

“That is too funny!” Brooke marched over and pulled Archie into a tight hug. “I’m so glad that this is happening, though. She needed to be enlightened.”

Archie returned Brooke’s hug and hopped giddily as he pulled away. “I have to run home real quick, but I’ll be back in time for dinner. You guys ok with this?”

Brooke looked at David as he tossed some empty boxes into the corner. “I think we got it, sweetie. Take your time.”

He nodded and turned to leave. “Bye, Brooke! Bye, Cook!”

*****

Later that evening, Archie had returned and he was stationed near the end of the table with bread duty. David was only a few steps away with the drinks. “whose idea was the red, white, and blue ice cubes?”

David chuckled. “Mine. It’s something we used to do back home for the Fourth of July.”

“Interesting.”

“HmmMmm.” David glanced over at Archie he seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe it was just because of the news from earlier, but either way, he figured he should take the chance while he had the opportunity. “Hey, are you doing anything tomorrow evening?”

“Um, no.”

“I think we should hang out.”

Archie furrowed his brow. “Why?”

David shrugged. “Because I’m kinda new in town, and I want to be shown the ropes.”

“You should find someone more willing.”

“Come on, Archie. I’m trying to be your friend. Why won’t you let me?”

“I have friends,” Archie informed him. “I don’t really need anymore.”

David frowned, suddenly feeling rejected. Apparently, Archie had flipped that damn switch again.

Archie sighed exasperatedly. “Why are you trying so hard anyway? Is it because you feel bad about what happened?”

“No,” David responded a little too quickly. “I mean, I do feel horrible about what happened, but that has nothing to do with me wanting to get to know you better.”

The younger man remained silent for a few moments while he opened another package of dinner rolls. He had been rather rude to David. Perhaps he should take Brooke’s and his mother’s advice and layoff. After all, David had been nothing but nice to him, and he had been quite dedicated to volunteering at the shelter as much as possible. He even sat through a two-hour session of food handler’s school just so he could continue volunteering. He glanced over at David who was filling cups with ice for drinks. Immediately, he felt remorse upon seeing the lack of a smile on David’s face. When he spoke again, his voice was much softer and showed less malice. “Mama told me that you sent a fruit basket and an elaborate apology letter. That was very nice of you.”

“Well, I would like to send one to all the families that were affected by Arthur’s wickedness, but I have no forwarding addresses.”

Realization dawned on Archie and he frowned. “How did you get Mama’s?”

David felt the heat of a blush creeping up his neck. “Um, the other day when you left the market, I uh, I followed you home.”

Archie glanced up at David through thick eyelashes. He couldn’t help the grin that formed on his lips when he saw how embarrassed David was. “Are you stalking me, Mr. Cook?”

David was surprised by the tiny hint of playfulness in his voice. He smirked. “Maybe.”

“Well, a good stalker would know that that’s my mom’s house. I don’t live there.”

“Crap. Now I gotta follow you home again.”

Archie giggled nervously wondering if David was really just teasing. “So um, did you have anything in mind for tomorrow evening?”

David paused what he was doing and looked up with surprised eyes. “Seriously?”

Archie shrugged. “Yeah. I guess I have been rather unfair to you. You’re actually not the horrible person that I thought you would be.”

Choosing not to comment on just how unfair Archie had indeed been to him, he grinned. “I was thinking dinner. Your choice of venue, of course. Then what ever you want to do afterwards.”

“That sounds like a date.” Archie tilted his head to the side and focused his eyes upon David. “Are you asking me out?”

David chuckled. “No. I’m just suggesting that we hang out. It’s only a date if you want it to be.”

Pursing his lips thoughtfully, Archie went back to filling the pan with rolls.

*****

David slid into the booth across from Archie. “Noriega’s, huh? I haven’t eaten here since I was a kid.”

“Oh?” Archie asked. “Thought you were new in town.”

David grinned. “I am. But years ago, I used to come visit Arthur for a weekend every summer. He would bring us here.” He paused, reminiscing about a time when he thought his uncle could have hung the moon and stars.

“You looked up to him,” Archie stated softly.

Coming out of his reverie, David steeled himself, not wanting to show the emotion that he was feeling. Archie was right. He had looked up to the man. That’s what made the fact that he was a crook an even harder pill to swallow. “Yeah. I guess I did.” He looked around the small diner. “Say, does old man Noriega still run this place?”

Archie shook his head. “No. He retired and his Grandson, Danny, took over a few months ago.” Archie smiled brightly at the waitress who approached their table. “Hey, Rami!”

“Archie!” The small Filipino girl greeted cheerfully. “How are ya, babe?”

“I’m doing well,” Archie replied. “How about yourself?”

“Fantastic!” Ramiele looked from Archie to David and back, thinking that Archie would get her subtle hint. When he didn’t, she cleared her throat, causing him to give her a strange look.

“What?”

“Who’s your friend?”

“Oh!” Archie sat up a little straighter, blushing when David smirked, obviously getting that Ramiele assumed they were on a date. “This is David Cook,” he explained. “He helps out at the shelter. Cook, this is one of my best friends, Ramiele. We just call her Rami.”

“Hmm, Cook?” Ramiele studied him thoughtfully. “Please tell me that you’re not related to that old goon, Arthur.”

Archie slapped a hand on the table and started coughing loudly, to direct her attention back to him.

“Are you ok?” David asked.

“Y-yeah. Fine. Um, maybe you should bring us our drinks,” he cleared his throat. “Please?”

“Oh. Yeah. The usual?” She turned to David after Archie had told her yes. “How about for you cutie?”

David arched an eyebrow. “Um, Coke, please.”

“Sure thing. Be right back.”

Once she was gone, David looked at Archie who was fumbling nervously with a napkin. “Wow. Does everyone in this town hate him?”

Archie grimaced. “Uh…yeah. Pretty much. Sorry about that.”

David shrugged. “Don’t be.” He picked up one of the menus that Ramiele had left. “So, while digging through some old files at the office, I found out that your family owned a diner.” David decided to leave off the part that he was deliberately looking for his information when he was ‘digging.’ He didn’t need to know that. Right?

Archie smiled fondly. “Yeah. Archie’s.”

The older man couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Archie looked when he smiled like he was smiling right then. It was a real smile. “Was it named after you?”

Archie giggled. “No. That was just short for our family’s last name. People didn’t start calling me Archie until later.”

“You remember it?”

“Oh yeah. I was eight when they tore it down.” Archie noticed David’s eyes shift from him to the menu awkwardly. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and though of something to say to ease the tension that he’d just created. “The barbeque here is really good,” he finally said.

David lifted his eyes to meet Archie’s over the top of his menu. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, if you like barbeque.”

“I do like barbeque,” he replied with a smile as he closed the menu. “Why don’t you just order for me?”

“For real?”

“Yeah. After all, you do know what’s good.” David laid the menu down and leaned forward to rest his arms on the edge of the table.

By that time, Ramiele was back with their drinks. She was also ready to take their orders in which Archie blurted out to her quickly causing her to give him a suspicious look.

This time when she left, Archie turned to David. “Was that ok?”

“That was fine,” David replied with a nod.

“Look,” Archie began. “I am really sorry about the way I’ve treated you. I was being unfair and bullheaded, and I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like…” he stopped rambling when David put his hands up and shook his head.

“Archie, it’s ok. I think I get it.”

Archie sighed heavily. “Well can I at least thank you for breaking Paula’s office door in order to rescue me?” He grinned when David began to laugh. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, that was a sound he would miss if David were to go away.

“Um, yeah. I guess you can. I just couldn’t let him…well, you know.”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

“Ok,” David put folded his arms on the table in front of him and leaned in. “Who are you and what have you done with Archie?”

Archie looked across the table at him shyly. “This is the real me. The real Archie.”

David smiled warmly. “I think I like this Archie the best.”

*****

After dinner, Archie suggested that they go for a stroll on the quainter side of town where there were various shops and activities. David was seriously like a kid in a candy store as they went into shop after shop. Archie just stood back and watched, amused by how childlike he really was.

“Hey, look! Ice cream truck!” Archie’s eyes grew wide as David grabbed his arm and practically dragged him to the spot where the truck was parked. “What kind do you like?”

“Um…what ever is fine.”

David waited his turn in line and ordered them each a double dipped cone of Rocky Roads. He smiled and handed one to Archie before sticking his tongue out to lick the side of his. “Mmm,” he whined. “So good.”

Archie had to quickly avert his eyes to keep from staring at David. He was really too much.

*****

The night slowed as they sat on the edge of a bridge staring down into the dark, rushing water of the river below, just enjoying the sounds of the city behind them. David rested his chin on one of the bars that crossed in front of him serving as a safety device so that they wouldn’t slip off of the bridge. “This is such a beautiful place,” he said softly.

Archie nodded, agreeing with him. “It is.”

The older man turned his head to watch him for a moment as he watched the river below, seemingly lost in thought. “Archie?”

“Hmm?”

“Tell me your story.”


	6. Chapter 6

The warm breeze blew, ruffling Archie’s hair as he considered letting David in. On one hand, what could it hurt? But on the other hand, Archie wasn’t sure he wanted to delve into a subject that had once brought him such pain and anguish.

David studied him quietly. He could see the conflict he was currently having with himself. He was still staring at him when Archie turned his head to face him.

“What do you want to know?”

That hadn’t been expected. Was Archie really going to be an open book about his life? Was it really going to be that easy? He was certain if he’d asked the man to tell him about his past a few weeks earlier, he would have been told to mind his own, in not such polite words. “Um, everything?”

Archie laughed lightly, returning his gaze to the hazy darkness in front of him. “How’d I know?”

David shrugged. “Sorry. I guess I’m just curious.”

“It’s ok.” Archie folded his arms across the bar in front of him. “I guess I’ll start from the beginning.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking again. “When I was little I lived in a nice, cozy little apartment above the diner with my family. The diner was my parent’s life. It had been passed down from my great-grandfather. My dad met my mom there when they were still teenagers. He was waiting tables for my grandfather after school, and Mama came in one day and just like that, it was your typical love at first sight fairytale.” He chuckled lightly. “If you believe in that kind of thing.”

“Do you?” David asked before he could stop himself from interrupting.

Archie sighed and shook his head indecisively. “Ah, man. I don’t know if I even believe in love anymore.”

David rested his head on his arms. How was it possible for someone so young not to believe in love. When he was Archie’s age, he used to dream about falling in love. “I’m going to jump the gun here and say that probably has something to do with the infamous Nate.”

Groaning, Archie glared at him. “Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

“Oh! Whoa! Sorry. Please, go on.”

Archie snickered instead of immediately going back to his story. “Infamous?”

David shrugged. “What? The guy did not leave me with a good first impression.”

“He’s not…” he stopped himself before he allowed himself to defend him. He could see David’s disproval already showing on his face. “Never mind. Back to what I was saying. When I was like six or seven, I remember coming home from school and seeing these guys in black suits sitting in the diner talking to my dad. I later found out that they were men from your company. My parents hired them to make some renovations. It ended up being a lot more than that.”

“They said the building was outdated and would never pass inspection. Right?”

“Exactly. It took like, over a year. By the time that the diner was done, I didn’t even know the place. Dad had used up all of his savings and there were still thousands of dollars owed. We lost the diner. Our home.” He took a deep breath before continuing. The next part wasn’t so easy to talk about. “We were out on the streets in the dead of winter, and no one cared. My youngest sister, at the time, was only two. Mama was pregnant with Amber. It was very rough. I was one of the older ones so I had to, you know, help keep the smaller ones warm.”

“My God,” David whispered. “You were eight years old.”

Archie nodded. “Yeah. Eventually we found the shelter, and, of course, Paula took us in. Unfortunately, the weeks we had spent on the streets had taken its toll. My Dad had done everything to keep us kids and Mama safe and warm. Even when it meant denying himself the warmth of a coat or an old blanket that we’d found in a dumpster.” Archie reached up and wiped the tears from his eyes. He hadn’t even realized he was crying until he tasted the saltiness of his tears.

“Hey,” David said softly as he reached out to put a hand on Archie’s shoulder. “You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.”

Sniffling, Archie took a moment to collect himself. “No. I’m already this far in. I may as well tell you the rest.” He glanced over at David who was, unsurprisingly, wearing a look of utter sympathy. He cringed at the idea that he might continue to look at him with pity. Maybe telling him everything had been a bad idea. “That is, if you want to know the rest.”

“Of course, I want to know, Archie,” he said. “But not if it’s going to upset you so much.”

“I remember the night the ambulance came to the shelter,” David continued with a hollow voice. “It was the last time I saw my Dad. They said he had pneumonia and that it was so far advanced that they couldn’t save him.”

“I’m so sorry, Archie.” David knew that none of this had been his fault. Christ, he was still a teenager when all of this happened. But for some reason he somehow felt responsible. He also felt a great deal of anger towards the man he’d idolized for most of his life. The man who was the reason he did what he did for a living. He wished he’d known about the whole situation before. “I…I wish…”

Archie held up a hand to stop David from speaking any more. “Don’t. This has nothing to do with you. It was a long time ago, Cook.” Archie stared at him adamantly until the other man conceded to his wish and just listened.

Archie continued his story; telling him about how eventually his mom was able to find work, while he and his siblings stayed at the shelter with volunteers, and about how one day they were able to move into a single bedroom apartment. He explained that his mother scraped and saved up the money she earned from her job along with the money that was finally coming in from Jeff’s social security. Then how, after almost eight years of struggling, they were finally able to afford a small town house with a very small backyard. The same house his mother and younger siblings still lived in.

“I was sixteen by then. I was able to get a job of my own, like my sister had done a year or so before. It made things a little easier on Mama. I just moved into my own apartment a few months ago, actually. It’s nothing much, but it works for me.” He finished with a small smile. “So, there you have it.”

David nodded his head. “I can see why the shelter is so important to you.” Of course, he could also understand why he hated Arthur and everything that AC Construction stood for. The young man had lost way more than his home because of them. He wondered exactly how many others like Archie were out there. Some of them perhaps still on the street.

After that, both men remained quiet for a while, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Finally, David spoke again. “What about Nate?”

Archie chuckled. “That’s another story for another night. Now it’s your turn. Tell me about you.”

“Ah, you already know about me.” He spoke softly with a hint of melancholy. “I was the typical rich kid who had everything handed to him on a silver platter.”

It was Archie’s turn to watch the other man thoughtfully. “For some reason,” he began, “I don’t believe that.”

That comment surprised David. This was coming from the same kid who had been so quick to judge him. “Oh?”

“You’re different from them. You may have money, but you’re obviously very grounded. Humble, even.”

“Really? You think so?”

Archie nodded his head. “Yeah. So explain yourself Mr. Cook.”

David smirked and went back to his thoughts for a moment. When he looked back towards Archie, the young man was still staring at him with question. “My parents divorced when I was little. My Dad moved away and remarried. My mom is an amazing woman. She’s the one who kept me level headed and taught me how to treat people with respect no matter how rich or poor they were. Everyone is equal in her eyes and that’s the lesson that she taught me. Nothing against my dad, of course. He isn’t a bad person. I spent my summers with him. That’s how I managed to get so acquainted with my uncle. It’s his side of the family that has the money. I was just lucky enough to be an heir. Although lately, I’ve been questioning whether or not that is a good thing.”

“It is,” Archie interrupted. “You’re doing good things with your resources. That’s what makes you different.”

“I’m glad you think so,” David said with a smile before continuing to tell him more about himself and his family.

Archie chuckled as David finished his spiel on relationships. “Sounds like you and I have the same kind of luck in that area.”

“So it would seem.”

Archie sighed and got up from his spot on the bridge. “Oh, don’t worry, Cook. Someday I’m going to meet my Prince Charming, and you’ll meet your Cinderella, and we’ll all live happily ever after.” He reached out a hand to help David up, but David just laughed and shook his head as he grabbed on to the rail to pull himself up.

David chose not to say anything about the fact that he wasn’t looking for a Cinderella. Never had been, actually. He wasn’t quite sure how, after the conversation they’d just had, Archie concluded that he had been speaking about girls. He figured if he didn’t say anything to correct that assumption, Archie wouldn’t think that he had ulterior motives and run away. “Where are we going?”

“Home!” Archie laughed. “It’s really freakin’ late, and I have an early shift in the morning.”

David looked at his watch and was shocked by the time. “Whoa! It is late. I didn’t realize we sat here that long.”

“Neither did I.” Archie began walking down the street that would take them back into the city. David hailed a taxicab while Archie assured him that his apartment was only a few blocks away and he would walk. “See you tomorrow?”

David nodded. “Yep. See you then.” As he slid into the backseat of the cab, he remembered something. “Oh! Hey, Arch?”

“Yeah?” Archie stopped walking and turned back to David.

“Thanks.”

“No,” Archie shook his head and gave David a grateful look. “Thank you.”

David smiled and ducked back into the car. “Night, Archie.”

Archie waved as the taxi drove off. Then he shoved his hands in his pocket and began his walk home.


	7. Chapter 7

While cleaning up at the shelter one night, Brooke turned on the stereo and Katy Perry was blasting throughout the mess hall. David who was wiping off an already cleared table, stopped to look over at Archie who was singing along and dancing about as he cleaned up the trash. He grinned. “Hey, Archie!”

Archie stopped singing and dancing to look over at him. “What?”

David gestured towards the speakers. “This song reminds me of you.”

The younger man sent an icy glare his way before going back to his work with a grin of his own.

David smiled brightly and began to sing along. “You’re hot then you’re cold. You’re yes then you’re no…” He only stopped to begin laughing hysterically when a plastic cup filled with ice slammed into his shoulder.

Brooke stood in the doorway watching for a moment, shaking her head. She was certainly glad to see Archie getting along with David. She went back into the office to finish up a few things before going home for the night.

“Hey, can you get that?” David asked as his cell phone that was laying on the buffet table began to ring at the same time he was heading into the kitchen for some bleach and water to sanitize the tables with. “If it’s my brother, tell him that our meeting is at ten in the morning.”

Archie ran over and flipped the music off and picked up David’s phone.

A few moments later, David returned with a pan full of bleach water. “How come we always get stuck washing down the tables?”

Archie grabbed a cloth from the pan of hot water. “Believe me. It’s better than washing Elsie’s pots and pans,” he assured him as he began to wipe down one of the tables. “Oh by the way, that wasn’t your brother on the phone.”

“Oh. Well who was it?”

“Allen? Said he wants you to call him back as soon as you can.” Archie looked up just in time to see the color drain from David’s face. “Are you alright?”

“Um…yeah. Fine.”

Much to Archie’s concern the rest of the next hour and a half was spent in uncomfortable silence. The only time either of them spoke was when Brooke came out to tell them goodnight because she was leaving. David did manage to tell her goodnight. Otherwise, he looked immersed in his own thoughts. Archie figured it was best not to bother him. Obviously, the older man was distracted by the phone call. Therefore, Archie went about sanitizing his share of the tables, humming to himself as he moved along.

Once they were done, Archie locked up the building while David waited for him on the sidewalk with his hand shoved in his pockets, looking rather remorseful. “I’m sorry,” he said as Archie came to stand next to him.

“For what?”

“For becoming a mute,” he laughed. “I’m sure I made the remainder of the evening quite boring.”

Archie giggled light-heartedly. “Eh, well it wasn’t really the norm for you, but it’s ok. I don’t mind the quiet sometimes.”

David nodded. “You uh, wanna go for a walk? Maybe stop by Noriega’s for a night cap or something?”

Archie shrugged. “Sure.” Lately he had been spending some time with David in the evenings after they worked at the shelter together. He found himself really enjoying his company and realized that he was glad that he’d given him a chance.

*****

After Ramiele had discovered that the two men weren’t dating, she flirted unashamedly with David every time she had the chance. She was always delighted to see them at the diner. On this night in particular, she slid into the booth next to David smiling brightly up at him through darkened lashes. “Why hello there.”

“Hi, Rami,” David said politely and with a smile.

Archie rolled his eyes and chuckled at how she stared dreamily up at David.

“What can I get for you tonight?”

“Hmm,” David tilted his head to the side. “I was thinking about a double-espresso, caramel latte.”

“Hot or frozen?”

“Frozen,” he said with a wink.

Ramiele giggled and moved to get up. “I’ll be right back.”

“Rami!” Archie exclaimed.

The petite girl jumped slightly and frowned. “Oh! Archie. I’m sorry. What do you want?”

“One of my best friends and you totally ignore me because Mr. Hottie over there,” he pointed to David, “got you all worked up.”

David looked at Archie with an arched eyebrow, partly because he’d blatantly teased Ramiele in front of him and partly because he’d called him a hottie.

Ramiele gasped in horror before realizing that Archie was only teasing her. “Oh my God, Archie. Can you blame me? He’s freakin’ delicious.” She grinned, satisfied when Archie’s face flushed.

“Um, guys? Please stop referring to me as if I’m a piece of meat,” David interrupted in a playful tone.

Ramiele winked at him and then took Archie’s order. “Be back in a few.”

After they had their drinks, Archie decided to cut right to the chase. “So what happened to you back there?”

“I was just surprised by that phone call,” David replied just as his phone rang again. He pulled it from the pocket of his jeans to look at the display. He exhaled slowly as he hit the ignore button.

Archie watched curiously, as David laid the phone down on the table next to his drink. “You are kind of easy to read,” Archie said. “Like right now, I can tell that you are having a bit of a hard time deciding whether or not you’re going to answer the next time he calls.”

David looked up at Archie through half-closed eyes. “Nice read.”

“Who is he?”

“My ex-boyfriend,” David replied softly.

Archie stared at him with his mouth agape for a moment. “B-boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow,” Archie muttered to himself. “I really missed it this time.”

“What?”

“N-nothing.”

“Are you really that shocked?”

“Well…Kinda. I mean, I just never even thought about it, I guess.”

David smirked. “Surprise.”

Archie took a drink of his strawberry smoothie. He was at a loss for words at the moment. He had just assumed that David was straight, but now that he was really thinking about it, he saw the signs that he should have seen before. “Man,” he said when he pulled his mouth away from his straw. “Rami is going to be devastated.”

“Um, I think it would be best not to say anything.”

Archie’s eyes grew wide. “Are you closeted?”

David laughed. “No. I’ve been out since I was like, fourteen. I just really don’t want to see her disappointed. Not tonight.”

Archie nodded his head, understanding. “So…” He had lots of questions running through his mind, but he didn’t know where to begin.

“Sorry that I wasn’t more up front with you. I didn’t want you to think I was, you know, after you.”

Despite the seriousness of David’s confession, Archie chuckled. “Um, I probably would have thought that. Actually, it’s one the thoughts that went through my mind just now.” He glanced up at David. “You’re not. Are you?”

“No,” David replied with a grin. He was being somewhat honest. The truth was, he was attracted to the younger man, but as far as pursuing anything other than friendship? There was no way. The feelings that had surfaced when Allen had tried to contact him, proved to him that he was in no way ready to start something new with anyone. “I just want to be friends.”

Archie nodded. “Good. I’m…we’ll, Nate and I haven’t been over that long and…you know.”

“Absolutely.”

“So, what happened?”

“Huh?”

“With Allen.”

“Oh.”

“Never mind,” Archie blurted, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat. “That was rude of me.”

David laughed softly. “Like I haven’t pried into your past.” He sighed heavily and took a drink of his melting, caramel latte. When he finished is sip, he set the cup back on the table and picked up a napkin in which he preceded to fumble with. “A lot happened.”

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to,” Archie assured him.

Ignoring him, David went on. “Allen and I went to high school together. We played baseball on our school’s team and were pretty good friends. After graduation, we parted ways. I went to college for a business degree and he went there on a baseball scholarship. Then he got signed. Minor league. We’d stay in close contact through all of this. I even attended some of his games, ya know, supporting him in his ventures. Then suddenly things changed. It was during my second year in college. I went to one of his games and we went to this party after the game, and well, one thing led to another,” he explained, while still playing with the napkin in his hand. “It wasn’t something that either of us acknowledged afterwards. I went back to school and he went back to his baseball tour.”

Archie couldn’t miss the fact that David hadn’t looked up at him since he started his story. Obviously, he was still very much affected by this. He held up a hand, to make him stop for a moment as he saw Ramiele approaching. David gave him a grateful smile and picked his drink back up. Archie quickly told Ramiele that they were fine and he’d flag her down if they needed something. He gave her a determined look, hoping that she got the idea. She finally gave in and left them alone. “Sorry about that. Go on?”

David shrugged off the apology. “Anyway, the next time I saw him was the following year. He showed up at my apartment, looking rather ragged. He’d been fired from the team and was out of money. I let him stay with me and gave him money when he needed it.

The thing was, I’d been in love with him since we were in high school. He was oblivious, of course. Until…until we lived together. I got out of class one night, and he had ordered Chinese food and had this incredible evening planned for us. I’m talking, candlelight dinner, and wine. The whole nine yards. He told me that he was in love with me. We were officially together after that, but no one but us knew. He wasn’t ready to come out yet.

Of course, the longer we were together, the more things I learned about him. Like for instance, the real reason he lost his job. Drug addiction and a gambling problem.”

“Oh, gosh.”

“Yeah,” David agreed. “I bailed his ass out of jail at least five times in our first year together. Then one day he came to me and asked to borrow ten grand. He said he had to pay of some sort of debt. He knew I would give it to him. I always did. I just loved him that much.”

Archie shifted in his seat. This had taken a turn he hadn’t expected.

“The day after I gave him the money, I woke up to a note on his pillow saying that he was sorry.” He trailed off and took another drink. “Am I boring you with the details?”

Archie shook his head. “No. Not at all.” After all, the more he learned now, the less he would have to ask about in the future.

“We’ve been together on and off for the past five years. The last time I saw him was before Christmas. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t be stupid enough to take him back again. Every time it begins with him being broke and feeling guilty for hurting me. He swears it will be different, and he won’t do it again, but he always does.” David decided to leave out the part where he drinks a lot and insults him in the worst ways, calling him derogatory names and telling him that he’s fat and that he hates to look at his body because it’s disgusting. He didn’t want Archie to know about his flawed self-image. “I’ve had other relationships in between our stints, but they’re all pretty much the same.”

“They’re all using you,” Archie whispered. “They’re taking advantage of you, Cook.”

“I know.”

Archie didn’t understand. If David knew that he was being used, then why did he keep allowing it to happen?

“Anyway, I have a feeling that’s why Allen is calling. He’s probably out of money again.”

They were then interrupted by Archie’s cell phone. He jumped slightly as it began to vibrate in his pocket. He always forgot he had it. He was still getting the hang of having a phone with him at all times. “Oh!” He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. It was a text message from his sister. He grinned as he read it. “Hey, Cook?” He asked as he closed it. “You wanna go have some fun tonight?”

“What kind of fun?” He looked at Archie suspiciously. It wasn’t like the boy to be initiating any kind of hangout time for them.

Archie grinned and got up from his seat, grabbing his now empty smoothie cup from the table and pushed his chair in. “Trust me. You need this.”

David furrowed his brow in question, but Archie had already turned and left him sitting alone at the table. He got up and followed. By the time he caught up, Archie had already paid their tab and was pushing him towards the door. “Archie, what….?”

“We’re going dancing.”

“What? No.” David protested in disbelief. Dancing? “I don’t dance!”

“Neither do I, but this will be fun. You don’t have to dance if you don’t want to.”

Archie pulled him along for a little while longer until he was finally following willingly. However, he stopped in his tracks when he looked up at the building they’d stopped in front of. Above the entrance, there was a huge, flashing, rainbow-colored, dolphin. The Rainbow Dolphin. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Archie only laughed and walked up to the bouncer who he apparently knew well. The bald man slipped a neon wristband on his arm as he held it out. “Thanks, Chris.” He then motioned for David to come closer. “This is my friend, Cook. He’s of age.”

Chris gave David a nod and opened the door for them. He could feel the pulsing of the music as they entered the club. Archie seemed to looking for someone. He grabbed David’s hand as he found who he was looking for and pulled him through the crowd of people. He stopped near the bar where a woman with a strong recumbence to Archie was standing.

“David! You came!” She squealed.

“Hey, Claudia,” he greeted over the music as she hugged him. As he pulled away, he gestured towards David. “This is Cook.” He looked at David. “Cook, this is my sister, Claudia.”

David reached out and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she then squealed as two strong circled her waist. “Oh! Hi!”

Adam, ginned, his eyes shining brightly through heavily outlined lashes. “Hey.”

“This is my boyfriend, Adam,” she said, introducing him to David. “Babe, this is David’s friend, Cook.”

“Cook?” Adam questioned.

David laughed. “The name is David. We just try to avoid confusion.”

“I see.” Adam looked over at Archie. “Hey, Arch.”

Archie smiled brightly. “Hey, Adam.”

*****

A while later, they were all on the dance floor despite the fact that neither David nor Archie danced. Adam and David were keeping them pretty well supplied with drinks. David was to the point where he might have had a little too much. He hadn’t really allowed himself to indulge in that kind of behavior in a long time, so it really wasn’t taking much to get him drunk. He didn’t care though. He was having fun and the last thing on his mind was his ex.

“So,” Adam asked as Claudia left the dance floor to go to the ladies room, and he moved in closer to Archie and David who were dancing close enough to each other that he really couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. “How long have you guys been seeing each other?”

Archie’s eyes grew wide, and he would have put some distance between them if it hadn’t been for David’s hands on his hips, and Adam’s body suddenly pressed up against his back. “Um, we’re not. We’re not um, seeing each other.”

“Nope,” David agreed with a silly, drunken laugh. “Just friends. Finally!”

Adam just grinned and continued to move to the music with the two of them.

“Hey!” Claudia exclaimed as she slipped her fingers through two of Adam’s belt loops and pulled him towards her.

“Oh! Hey, baby. You’re back!”

She gave him a playful swat. “I am the only Archuleta that you are allowed to be all over.”

He chuckled and slipped his arms around her waist. “Of course.”

About an hour later, Adam had driven them to Archie’s apartment and was helping him lead David up the steps. He would be spending the night because Archie had no idea where exactly David lived and David wasn’t coherent enough to tell him right at the moment. “I think someone had a few too many Shock Waves,” Adam chuckled.

“I’ll say,” Archie agreed as he fumbled with the lock on his door while Adam held onto David who was drunkenly nuzzling his neck. “There,” Archie said as he pushed the door open. He then continued to help Adam get David inside. “We’ll just lay him on the bed.” He would have put him on the couch, but he still had laundry laying on it. Adam agreed and waited with his arms full of David once more while Archie pulled the covers back on his twin size bed.

“Where you gonna sleep?”

Archie giggled at David’s slurred speech. “I’ll clean off the couch.”

“But…”

“Hush. You are way too drunk to be arguing with anyone.”

“I’m not drunk,” David protested and tried to pull away from Adam’s grip. That only resulted on him falling on to Archie and pinning him down on the mattress. “Ok…” David conceded as Archie pushed his limp body off of him. “Maybe I am.” Then he began to laugh as he stared at the ceiling.

Archie stood back up and looked at Adam with a freaked out expression that only caused Adam to begin laughing as well.

“Don’t worry, he’ll crash very soon. Just give him some water and Tylenol, and make sure he has more in the morning when he wakes up.”

Archie nodded and headed towards the kitchen for a glass of water. “Thanks, Adam. I appreciate the help.”

“Oh, no problem. I’ll see you later.”

Archie said goodbye as Adam left his apartment. He then took the glass of water to David and made him take it before he fell asleep. He could tell he was about to drift off at any moment, so he decided to make him comfortable. “I’m going to take off your boots. Ok?”

“Mmmph…” David closed his eyes.

Archie tossed the boots to the side and looked up at David who was fumbling unsuccessfully with his belt. “Um,” he reached up to still his hand. “Here. Let me help.” David let his hands fall to the side while Archie carefully unbuckled his belt and undid the button on his jeans and finally helped him remove them. “Ok. Comfy?”

“MmmHmm.”

Archie grinned and lifted his legs up onto the bed before pulling the blankets up over him. “Goodnight, Cook.”

“G’night, Archie,” he mumbled.


	8. Chapter 8

Archie woke up to the most annoying music he’d ever heard, and yet it was familiar. It took him a moment to remember why he was sleeping on the couch. That’s when he realized what he was hearing. Looking at the clock, he flung the covers off of him and ran into the bedroom where David was still snoring. Archie grabbed the phone from the nightstand where he’d laid it the night before when it fell from David’s jeans. He saw the name on the display and quickly answered. “Hello?”

“Um…who’s this?”

“Hey, Andrew. This is Archie. Sorry. Cook is sleeping.”

“Sleeping?”

“Yeah.”

“Crap. We have a very important meeting at ten. He needs to get his ass here. Can you wake him up? Please?”

“Sure. Just hang on a minute.” David laid the phone back on the nightstand and reached over, placing a hand on David’s shoulder. “Cook,” he whispered as he shook him gently. Nothing happened, so he tried again, this time speaking a bit louder. “Cook.”

“Hmmm. Go away.” David pulled a pillow over his head.

Archie giggled and took the pillow away. “Cook, wake up. You’re brother is on the phone.”

David groaned again and this time he pulled the covers up over his head. He refused to open his eyes. He could feel the light burning into his eyelids as it was. He drank way too much the night before. Then he suddenly realized who he was talking to and his whole body went ridged with one thought and one thought only. He quickly tried to concentrate on clearing his mind so he could assess the situation. Once he’d done that, he realized he was still wearing his t-shirt and boxers and socks. He exhaled slowly. That was good.

“Cook,” Archie tried again.

David finally shoved the covers away and turned over, tossing one arm over his eyes and grimacing because his head felt like it might explode at any moment. He reached out for the phone. “Gimme the phone.”

Archie handed him the phone and then left to get more water and Tylenol.

“What?” David asked into the phone, still not feeling fully functional.

“What do you mean what? Dave, we have a meeting in forty-five minutes. You were supposed to be here over an hour ago to go over the agenda with our staff.”

“Fuck!” David had totally forgotten about the meeting. “Shit.” He struggled to sit up, squinting his eyes against the harsh, white light. “Um, I’ll be there. Just…” he sighed, while pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to relieve some pressure. “Stall for me?”

“I’ll do what I can. Hurry up.”

David flipped his phone shut and looked around on the floor for his pants. He was tugging his boots on when Archie returned. “Thanks,” he said when Archie handed him the glass and a couple of pills.

“I called you a cab,” Archie informed him. “Should be here in a few minutes.”

“You are a life saver, Arch. Thanks so much.” He handed the now empty glass back to Archie as he stood up carefully. “Um, where is your bathroom?”

Archie pointed him in the direction of the bathroom before heading back out of the room himself. He went into the kitchen to find something for breakfast. He was in the middle of toasting a pop tart when David came in. “I uh, I have to go now. Sorry for getting so piss-ass drunk last night. I haven’t drunk in a while.”

Archie laughed. “It kinda showed.”

David gasped. “Hey!”

Archie smiled. “It’s ok. I don’t think I could have handled that much liquor either.”

David gave him a skeptical look. “I dunno, you seemed to be holding your own.”

“What? Oh. No. Adam was bringing me virgin drinks. The only alcohol I had was in the thing that you gave me when we first got there. What the heck was that anyway?”

David laughed. “That was called a sexual healing.”

“Oh.” Archie tossed him a granola bar and a bottle of orange juice. “Breakfast.”

“Thanks.”

“You better get going. Andrew is going to kick your butt if you miss that meeting.”

“I’m not afraid on him,” David said with a shrug. “Anyway, thanks for last night. It helped a lot.”

“No problem,” Archie replied as David made his way to the door. “Have a nice day, Cook.”

“You too, Archie. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

****

David went straight to the office. It wasn’t like he had time to swing by his place. He walked into his office where Andrew was waiting.

When he saw his brother’s rumpled appearance, Andrew panicked. “Oh my God, Dave. You can’t go in there looking like that!”

“I know.” David opened up the small coat closet in the back of his office and pulled out a garment bag. “I didn’t have time to go home change.”

“Holy shit. Please tell me that you’re not.”

“Not what?” David asked as he began to change clothes.

“Not sleeping with that Archuleta kid.”

“Jesus, Drew! Give me a little credit here.”

“Well obviously, you spent the night with him. What am I supposed to think?”

David rolled his eyes, annoyed at his brother for assuming that he was such a slut. “Can’t a gay guy have guy friends without being accused of fucking them?” Now he understood why girls got upset when people made that assumption.

“Of course,” Andrew replied. “It’s just that I know you’re attracted to him and well, we all know where that can lead.”

“In this case, nowhere.”

“Really?”

“Really.” David sighed and began buttoning up his white, dress shirt. “Allen called last evening.”

“What did that bastard want?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t talk to him.”

Andrew’s expression was one of surprise. “Wow. Points for you, bro.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t as easy as you think. I wanted to call him back.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Because I was with Archie.”

“Is that why you spent the night?” Andrew asked. “To keep yourself from calling him?”

“No. I spent the night because I was a little more than tipsy and Archie has no idea where I live.”

Andrew chuckled. “Drunk Dave probably scarred the kid for life. How did that happen? I thought you were working at the shelter last night.”

“It was after we closed up the mess hall. We went to Noriega’s for a drink. During that time, I spilled my guts like the pathetic shit that I am, and well, he dragged me down to the Rainbow Dolphin where we danced the night away with his sister and her eccentric, bisexual boyfriend.”

“You? Dancing?”

David chuckled. “Um, that’s where the alcohol came in?”

“Uh huh.” Andrew got up. “Come on. We have a meeting to conduct.”

David finished tying his tie as they walked from his office to the conference room where the meeting was about to start.

****

Archie was off from work all day and he didn’t have to be at the shelter until that evening, so he decided to go visit him mom for a while. They spent the day working in the small flower garden that Lupe had planted in her almost non-existent back yard. Being near fall, she wanted to get her bulbs for the next spring planted.

“How are things going at the shelter?” Lupe asked.

“Going well.”

“Is Mr. Cook still volunteering?”

Archie grinned. “Yes, Mama. He is still there.” He wasn’t naïve. He knew exactly what his mother was doing.

“I hope that you’re being nice to him.”

“I am,” Archie told her as he handed her another bulb to put in the ground. “We’ve actually hung out a few times. He’s a friendly guy.” 

“That’s good.” Lupe gave Archie a smile as if she knew something that he didn’t.

Before he could say anything, his phone began to ring. He wiped his hands off on his pants before answering it. “Hey, Cook.”

“Hey, Archie,” David replied.

“Did you make it to the meeting on time?”

“Yeah, I did, actually,” he said with a laugh. “Hey, listen, I was calling about our thing tomorrow. How about you come over to my place and we’ll work on the details of getting the event organized there?”

He was talking about the fundraiser that they were doing in a few months. He had been assigned the task of organizing and David said he’d help. “Um…” Archie was hesitant, but when David told him that he was expecting a delivery that he had to be there to accept, he agreed to it. “Ok. I’ll see you around nine then?”

“Ok, great,” David replied. “So, what are you up to?”

“Oh…just helping Mama plant some flowers. You?”

“Hmm, just some paperwork. We’re starting our first build next week. I have to get things in order before I leave here today.” 

“Aw, man,” Archie said with a laugh. “If I’d known you had so much to do today, I wouldn’t have insisted on going to the Dolphin.”

“It’s ok. It’s a typical Friday for me. The hangover makes it a little less easy to stay focused though.”

Archie laughed, but really, he did kinda of feel bad. After all, he was the reason David had the hangover. “Oh! I just thought of something. I don’t know where you live.”

“I’ll text you directions.”

“Ok.”

“Talk to you later, Arch.”

“Bye, Cook.” Archie hung up the phone and turned back to his mother who was looking at him with smile. “What?”

“Nothing,” she replied. “Can you go refill that bucket with water?”

Archie eyed his mother suspiciously before picking up the bucket and going back into the house.

*****

David had gone home from work around ten o’clock that night. He was exhausted. He took a nice hot shower before putting on a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. He was just about to slip into bed when the doorbell rang. “What the hell?” He groaned, wondering who could possibly be at his door so late at night.

When he got downstairs, he opened the front door. His mouth fell open in disbelief. “How did you find me?” He asked the man who was leaning up against a pillar on his porch.

“I’ve been asking around,” the man replied as he stepped closer, reaching out to run his fingers lightly over David’s cheek. “I like the scruff.”

David swallowed hard, trying not to give in, but he failed, leaning in to the touch and closing his eyes momentarily. The touch literally sent a jolt of electricity through his whole body.

“It looks sexy on you.”

With a quaking breath, David pulled himself somewhat out from under the other man’s spell. “What are you doing here, Allen?”

“I missed you,” he said. Allen stepped into the house and closed the door, ignoring David’s silent protests.

David felt his body tremble as he was taken into strong arms. Arms that he once felt safe in. Loved even. Then hands were on his face, cupping it gently.

“Did you miss me?”

Despite what his mind was screaming, he nodded. Why couldn’t he resist him? Why did he still care? He was still asking himself those questions and more when warm, familiar lips closed in on his own. All question, as well as rational thought, went out the window at the moment Allen’s tongue pushed its way inside David’s mouth. David’s hands gripped at the back of his shirt.

Allen pulled away, keeping his forehead pressed to David’s. “I’ve missed you so much, baby.”

David whimpered, feeling rough, calloused hands go down the back of his sweats, squeezing possessively at bare, fleshy cheeks. He reached up, grabbing Allen’s head, guiding their lips back together as the rest of their bodies rubbed hungrily against each other.

“Bedroom?” Allen murmured between kisses.

David pushed Allen’s hands down and pulled away from him long enough to relock the door and set the alarm. When he turned back to Allen who was staring at him suggestively, he hesitated. A million things were going through his mind at that moment, including the thought that he was going to wind up getting hurt again. He took a deep breath and pushed the thoughts away. It was just sex, right? He began walking towards the stairs, motioning for Allen to follow him.

Within the next half hour, David found himself pressed into the mattress on his stomach as he fisted the sheets in his hands. His breath hitched and his eyes stung at the realization that it’s never just sex. Squeezing his eyes shut, he bit his lip while the painful, yet delicious, burn of penetration overtook his senses.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, David woke up a little bit before his alarm clock was set to go off. Allen was still sleeping, snoring loudly into the pillow. David winced slightly as he went to move, because it had been a while since he’d had sex, and well, that hadn’t exactly been a gentle tryst. He laid there staring at the ceiling. He was mad at himself for being so easy. So predictable. As much as he wished the previous night had meant something to Allen, he knew it didn’t.

After a long time he felt Allen stirring in the bed next to him. “G’morning, baby,” he said gruffly.

David didn’t bother to look at him. He kept his eyes trained on the ceiling. “How much do you need?”

“What?” Allen asked, raising his head up off of the pillow to look at David.

“Come on, Allen. You and I both know that’s why you’re here.”

“I missed you,” Allen protested.

“Bullshit.” David pushed his hand away from his shoulder. “How much?”

Allen knew he’d been caught. He sighed and rolled over with a sigh. “Fifty.”

Without so much as another word, David got out of the bed, wrapping a blanket around him. He left the room and returned a little while later. He handed a check to Allen. “I’m going to take a shower. Please don’t be here when I get back.”

*****

Archie pulled up to the brick house, staring in awe at the size of the place. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but for some reason, he was. He cut the engine and climbed out of the car. Taking his time walking up the brick path to the front door. He was admiring the landscaping. His mother would love the flowers that lined the walkway.

He reached up and rang the doorbell as he stepped upon the top step. The man who answered the door, however, was not David, and Archie wondered for a moment if perhaps he had the wrong house, but then he remembered the car sitting in the driveway. He’d only seen David’s a few times, but he was sure it was the same one in the drive. Maybe he had a butler. “Um, hi. I’m looking for David. Is he home?”

The tall, muscular man grinned down at him. “Oh. Yeah, he’s in the shower. Come on in.”

Archie stepped inside, still eyeing the man suspiciously.

“I’m Allen, by the way,” he said and thrust his hand out to Archie. He could tell by the look on the boy’s face that he obviously knew who he was.

Hesitantly, Archie shook his hand. “Archie.”

“Oh yes! Archie. I believe we’ve spoken on the phone.” He grinned smugly as Archie nodded his head in agreement. “Cute name.”

Archie gave him a look of disapproval. He already disliked the man and the fact that he was flirting with him was not making it better.

“Um, I was just leaving. You can just wait for Dave in the living room, if you like. He shouldn’t be too much longer. Make yourself at home.”

Archie watched as the man left, leaving him to stand alone in the foyer. Ok. Why had that felt so strange, and why was he suppressing the urge to strangle a person he’d just met. He wondered into the family room just in time to see David descending the last couple of steps wearing a pair of low-hanging shorts and a t-shirt. “Archie!” The towel he was using to dry his hair with stopped moving. “Cook,” Archie replied. His eyes went straight to David’s neck where there was an ugly purple bruise. He forced himself not to say anything about it. “I hope you don’t mind,” he began instead. “Allen let me in.”

“Um, no. It’s ok. Have a seat.” He turned towards the kitchen. “You’re here early?” 

“No,” Archie corrected as he took a seat on one of the overstuffed chairs. “I’m right on time.”

David looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Oh. Well…” he trailed off as he began his search through the kitchen cabinets. “Have you ate?”

“Yeah.”

A few minutes later, David returned with a big bowl of cereal. “So,” he asked as he sat down on the sofa, curling his legs beneath him, “what do we need to do today?”

“Um, the agenda would be a good start.”

“We can start as soon as I’m finished with breakfast.”

“Take your time.”

David noticed something different about Archie at that moment and he noticed as the minutes went by, it became more apparent that Archie was not very focused on the task at hand. He was, instead, focused on him. It was unnerving. “God, Archie. Will you please stop looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Archie asked. He hadn’t realized that he was looking at David any differently than he always did. Although he was sure he’d been staring a few times because David had to snap his fingers a few times as he was talking in order to get his attention.

“Like,” David sat back and threw his hands up in the air. “Like you’re judging me, Arch. I know you’re smart and…well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Allen was doing here so early.”

Archie sighed and laid his pad and pencil down on the coffee table between them. “I’m not judging you. I really don’t think I have that right. I am confused, though,” he explained. “Two days ago…”

“I know,” David interrupted. “It’s a long complicated story.”

Archie nodded, hoping that David understood that he was really being sincere when he said he said he wasn’t being judgmental.

“Are you disappointed?”

“Huh?”

“Well, we kinds just became pretty good friends, and the last thing I want to do is make you think less of me.”

Archie shook his head. “Cook,” he said as if he suddenly realized just how insecure the man was. “I don’t think less of you. I am, however, concerned. You said yourself that the same thing happens every time he comes around. How can you risk that?”

David shook his head and head and then dropped it into his hands. “I am so pathetic,” he mumbled.

“You’re not pathetic,” Archie admonished.

“Yes,” David dropped his hands from his face and looked at Archie with a serious, but sad expression. “Yes, I am.”

“No,” Archie said while shaking his head. “Pathetic is having the guy that you’ve been with for three years cheat on you for two of those years and have absolutely no clue that it’s going on right under your nose.”

“That’s what happened with Nate?”

“Yeah. People told me about it. I refused to see it. Then one day, I wasn’t feeling well, so I left work early. I caught them in my apartment. In my bed.”

David crinkled his nose. “God, that sucks.”

“Yeah,” Archie agreed. “So, see? You’re not the only one refusing to face the music. When you really love someone and you just know that that person is the only one for you, you tend to put them on a pedestal and worship the ground they walk on no matter how badly they treat you.”

“Jesus, Archie. How old are you?” David asked, squishing up his face in mock disgust.

Archie laughed at David’s expression. “With the life I’ve had came lessons learned.”

David nodded as he looked down at the pile of papers that were now scattered out over his coffee table. “We’re not getting much done here.”

“So I’ve noticed.”

David grinned and motioned towards the TV. I just got the x-box hooked up the other day.”

“Do you have Guitar Hero?” Archie’s mood suddenly perked up and obviously so did David’s.

“Of course!” David got up off the sofa and went to entertainment stand where there were several gaming consoles and other devices hooked up to a wide-screen, flat panel TV. “Come on, Kid,” he called. “Prepare to get your ass whooped.”

Archie snickered. “Someone is full of themselves.”

“There is no way you can beat me. I am the master,” David boasted. “Undefeated by my friends.”

“Well then,” Archie shrugged as he took a plastic guitar from him. “Let’s see what you got.”

A while later, David set his guitar down and flopped back onto the chair, staring dumbfounded at the TV. “You beat me.”

Archie smirked and set his guitar down as well. Joining David on the sofa, he raided his eyebrow. “Who’s the master now?”

“I was distracted.”

“By what?”

“I don’t know, but something obviously distracted me.”

Archie chuckled. “Nice try.”

The doorbell interrupted their banter. “Oh! I bet that’s my delivery! Be back in a sec.”

Archie watched as he bounded off towards the front door. It was amazing how much both of their moods had changed in such a short period of time. After several minutes, Archie heard David came back inside. He was calling his name, so he got up to go see what he wanted. He found him in the foyer.

“Want to see my new toy?” David asked, excitedly.

The man was clearly beyond excited, Archie noticed. He was wearing a bright smile and his eyes were sparkling. “Do I?” Archie asked, cautiously, wondering what it could possibly be.

“Yes! Come on!” David grabbed Archie’s hand and pulled him out the front door.

“Oh my gosh!” Archie exclaimed with wide eyes. “That’s what you had delivered?”

“Yep!” David walked over and ran his fingers lovingly over the metallic red paint job. “Isn’t she a beauty?”

Archie nodded, still staring at the sleek, dark, candy-apple red, Ford Mustang GT that now set in David’s driveway.

“Wanna go for a ride?”

Archie was in the car before David could even get his own door open. “Oh my gosh, Cook!” Archie admired the black leather upholstery as he settled into the comfortable seat. “This is…”

“Fucking awesome.” David grinned at him as he snapped his seatbelt into place before starting the ignition.

****

It was almost nine-thirty when David and Archie arrived back at his house that night. They’d gone on a very long drive and made a few joyful pit stops along the way including a huge flea market that David had insisted on stopping at. They scoured the place for hours looking for old music memorabilia because David was decorating his game room in that old stuff. 

However, he didn’t find much of anything to decorate with. Archie lugged a cardboard box through the garage door, assisting David in getting all of his new…old junk into the house.

“Seriously, Cook. What are you going to do with all of this junk?”

“It’s not junk,” David protested as he followed Archie into the house, carrying another box of things from the flea marked with a large pizza balancing on top of that.

“One hundred and fifty-eight vinyl records.”

“One hundred and fifty-eight precious vinyl records that I basically stole.”

“How are you even going to listen to them?” He snorted upon seeing David grin brightly. “You have a record player that really works?” Archie shook his head as he set the box down on the dining room table. He didn’t think that anyone still had those around. Especially ones in working order.

David set his box down as well and walked into the kitchen to the refrigerator. He grabbed two beers and returned to the dining room.

Archie arched his eyebrow. “Distributing to a minor again, Mr. Cook?” He asked as he reached for the bottle that David handed him.

David smirked and pulled the bottle away. “Well, not if you’re going to call me on it. I’ll just drink them both.”

Archie pouted for a moment before snatching the bottle away from the older man.

“Come on.” David set his bottle down inside of the box he’d been carrying so he could pick it up again. “Let’s go see what we can find.”

Several beers and a half a box of records later, they were sprawled out on the floor in David’s living room, chatting about their favorite music.

“Dude! Check it out,” David exclaimed as he handed a record to Archie. “That was their first album ever!”

Archie looked at it, staring intently at the words as they ran together on the front of the album cover. “I…think…I…might be a little drunk,” he giggled as he dropped the cardboard to the floor in front of him.

David chuckled. “Ok. No more beer for you.”

“Dave!” They heard the voice calling from the front of the house.

“Back here, Drew!” David shouted before looking at Archie again. “Don’t tell him I gave you alcohol.”

Archie looked at David as if he’d lost his mind, but nodded his head just the same.

Andrew walked into the room, stopping when he saw Archie laying on the floor with his brother surrounded by records, empty beer bottles, and a pizza box. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hi, Andrew,” Archie said with a grin.

“Wow. Looks like you two are having a party.”

“No. Just going through some stuff we found earlier today. Did you see the car?”

“Not yet. That’s why I came by. I remember you saying that it would be delivered today.”

David got up. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He looked back at Archie who was still lying on the floor. “You coming, Arch?”

Archie shook his head. He didn’t think it would be wise to stand up just yet. Especially if David didn’t want Andrew to know that he was quite tipsy. Of course, it would take a blind man not to see what had gone down that evening considering the number of empty bottles laying around.

Once David and Andrew were both in the garage with the door safely shut behind them. “Dave?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why is Archie here?”

“Because we were supposed to work on organizing a charity event today.”

“How did that go?” Andrew asked with a curious stare.

David laughed as he opened the passenger side door of his new car and Andrew slid into the driver’s seat. “Not very well. We didn’t get a damn thing done. Especially after this arrived. We took it for a spin and went to some flea markets. Found a killer stash of old vinyl.”

Andrew shook his head while he checked out the car. “Millions of dollars and yet you shop at flea markets.”

“You never know what you might find.”

Andrew shrugged and went about familiarizing himself with the nifty little controls on the dashboard. “Guess who I talked to today.”

“Who?”

“Allen,” Andrew replied as he looked up at David, giving him a pointed stare. He frowned when he saw David’s face fall. “Want to tell me what’s really going on?”

David sighed. “God, why do you always feel like you need to protect me or something? I’m the oldest one here. I think we have got this totally backwards.”

Andrew didn’t seem amused. In fact, he simply stared at his brother, waiting for an answer.

“Allen showed up last night. You know how it is, Drew.”

“Yeah, I do. What I don’t understand is why you keep doing this to yourself. You know he’s only going to hurt you again.”

“I sent him away.”

“For now, maybe.”

David looked away from Andrew and busied himself with dusting a few dust bunnies from the dash.

“You said you were going to be more careful.”

“I’m aware of what I said. I don’t need a lecture, Drew.” David got out of the car and slammed the door.

“Dave!” Andrew jumped out of the car and followed David back into the house, but the older man was already up the stairs. The slamming of his bedroom door indicated that he didn’t want to be bothered.

Archie who had heard the commotion was now standing in the doorway looking at Andrew with concern written all over his face.

Andrew sighed and shook his head. “Shit.”

“Everything ok?” Archie asked even though it clearly wasn’t.

“Uh. Yeah. Just… oh. Nothing. Look, I’m sorry for obviously ruining your fun. I’m going to go now.”

Archie frowned. “You’re not going to go talk to him?”

“No. Trust me, it’s best to let him be.”

Nodding, Archie walked with Andrew to the door. He was still feeling a little wobbly, but nothing compared to what he thought he’d be. Either way, he knew he wouldn’t be going home that night, so he asked Andrew to set the security alarm before he left.

After Andrew left, Archie went back to the game room and went about cleaning up the mess that they’d left there. Once he was finished, he located a guest room where he would take up residency for the night.


	10. Chapter 10

The morning after, David awoke first and once he realized that Archie hadn’t gone home, he found him sound asleep in the guest room. Once Archie was awake, David apologized to him for just disappearing on him the night before. Of course, Archie understood so it was ok. They had breakfast together and then Archie left to spend Sunday with his family.

Months passed and things remained platonic between the two men despite what everyone who knew them believed. They often rolled their eyes when people made off-handed comments that there was potential for more between them. Despite David’s initial attraction to Archie, he was more into having as a friend than anything else. Moreover, there was the fact that neither of them were near ready for a relationship. Archie was lucky in the aspect that Nate had seemingly decided to leave him alone. David on the other hand still had no idea when nor where Allen might decide to pop back into his life. Another thing that he didn’t know was how he might react the next time he did. He could only hope that it was better than the previous time.

David did a lot of fund raising for the shelter and continued to work there when his schedule permitted. He was also very busy at work. After a much-needed grand re-opening event to let the public know they were under new ownership, they began getting more business, and as he’d hoped, the company’s reputation was getting a much-needed boost.

*****

The door to the shelter flew open, startling Archie from his duties. “Cook! Oh. It’s just you. Scared me there for a sec.”

“Sorry.”

“What are you doing here anyway? I thought you and Drew had some sort of conference or something to go to.”

“We do, but I have a problem.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Drew bailed on me. He has something else he has to take care of, so I was wondering, would you like to come with me?”

“To Kansas City?”

“Yeah. The flight is already arranged. All you have to do it say yes.”

“Um…”

“The dinner will be fantastic. I’ve already registered for it, so I can’t back out.” He handed Archie a small brochure. “That’s where I need to be.”

“Oh my Gosh! Cook, these are $2500 a plate.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you insane?”

“It’s for charity.” David pointed towards the bottom of the brochure.

“I can’t afford that.”

“It’s already paid for. Non refundable too.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So will you go?”

“I dunno, Cook…”

“Please?” David gave him puppy-dog eyes and puckered his lips.

Archie sighed. He wished David hadn’t realized that he had a weakness. “Ok. Let me make sure I can cover my shift at work for the next couple days.”

David’s pout was immediately replaced with a smile, and he gave the younger man a quick hug. “Thanks, Arch. You’re the best!”

Archie waved the compliment off as David walked away. This was going to be an interesting trip, providing he could get someone to cover for him.

*****

David finished getting dressed and went next door to Archie’s room to see if he was ready. He knocked on the hotel room door and waited a few minutes for Archie to answer. He wasn’t quite prepared for what happened when the door finally opened to reveal Archie in a pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt with a black necktie dangling in a sloppy knot around his neck.

His breath caught in his throat and he momentarily lost his ability to speak. He hadn’t had this feeling around Archie a handful of times since the first time he met him and even then, they hadn’t been that strong. He’d managed to repress those feelings, convincing himself that he was just lonely. It really had nothing to do with Archie in particular. Of course, that had only worked the first few times.

“Sorry,” Archie apologized for taking so long to open the door at the same time as he tugged at his half-tied tie. “I hate ties,” he grumbled. “I’ve never been able to tie one right.” He looked at David with pleading eyes as the older man closed the door behind him. “Could you?”

“Uh, Sure.” David grinned at the look of relief that washed over Archie’s face. He reached up and began pulling apart the disaster that Archie had made in place of a knot and proceeded to properly tie the strip of silk.

Archie watched David as he concentrated on tying it the right way. “You look really nice.”

David paused and looked at Archie. “Thanks. So do you.”

Archie sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and averted his attention away from David as he finished up. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but it was true. The older man did look really good in his black suit with the red button don shirt and black tie.

His hair was tussled just right and Archie found himself longing to run his fingers through it. Oh boy. This wasn’t good. And it was certainly nothing that Archie wanted to be feeling. He took a deep breath, hoping that David didn’t notice that he was trembling slightly.

“Done!” David declared triumphantly.

Archie beamed up at him. “Thanks! Um, excuse me for a minute.” Archie went into the bathroom to splash some cold water on his flushed face. He had to get that train of thought out of his head. David was his friend for cryin’ out loud. You just don’t think things like that about your friends! Except, he was. Wow. It was going to be a long night.

*****

The house band left the stage for a short intermission. Most everyone chose that moment to leave the ballroom to find a bathroom or for a smoke break, but David and Archie stayed put with several other event goers. Archie looked around the room, most everyone looked really important and suddenly he felt really out of place. Even David seemed to have some sort of special place there. He’d already witnessed at least ten people come up and talk to him, barely acknowledging him as he sat next to the older man.

“You would think they’d provide better entertainment,” David commented to Archie when he leaned over towards him to whisper in his ear. He hadn’t missed the look that Archie was suddenly sporting.

They’re not that bad,” Archie disagreed looking down into his lap and shrugging.

“You’re too nice.” David picked up a fork that was laying in front of him and began inspecting it. Archie raised his eyebrow and he shrugged. “What? I’m looking for specks. A place as extravagant as this should not have specks.”

“What if you find one?” Archie asked, praying to God that David wasn’t one of those anal people who had to make a show over something so trivial as a water spot on the silver. Of course, he had no reason to think that. He and David had been out to eat many times before. Just never at a formal event with so many socialites. It could be a different story.

David shrugged and laid the fork back down, picking up another in its place. “Nothing. I just like to know they’re not more perfect than Noriega’s.”

Archie giggled. “Have you ever not found a water spot on the silverware at Noriega’s?”

“Once.”

“For real?”

“No. Not really. I don’t usually pay attention.”

“Gosh,” Archie groaned softly having forgotten his previous discomfort. “When’s the food going to get here? I’m starving.”

David chuckled. “Soon. I hope.”

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait much longer for their meals to come. David joked that the pasta noodles must have been made of gold considering the price he’d paid.

“Charity, Cook. Remember?”

With a nod, David dug into his dinner. “Mmm, this is really good.”

“Yeah,” Archie agreed. “Totally makes up for the horrible music.”

“I thought they weren’t that bad,” David reiterated what Archie had said earlier.

“You said I was just being nice.” Archie grinned at him before putting a fork full of pasta into his mouth.

David smirked and then noticed a small speck of sauce on the corner of Archie’s mouth. “You have…” he reached out without really thinking about it and wiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

Archie swallowed his mouthful of food and glanced around the room, thankful that the lights were pretty dim and they were seated at a private table.

David drew his hand away and pressed his lips tightly together, realizing what he’d just done. What was he thinking?

Archie quickly picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth.

“Thanks.”

David gave him a curt nod and went back to eating, or at least trying to. The silence that fell over them was deafening and the tension could be cut with a knife. Both men were lost in their own thoughts and neither one of them were dealing well with them.

They managed to make some small talk during the rest of the event, but the liveliness of their earlier banter was long gone.

Finally, after it was over, they made their way outside where David’s driver picked them up in a shiny black limousine. “Um…so, it got kinda weird. Didn’t it?” David asked as they sat side by side in the limo waiting for traffic to begin moving.

“Yeah,” Archie replied honestly. “It kind of did.”

“Sorry.”

Archie sat there for a moment, thinking about how he’d been feeling. “I think I should tell you something.”

“Ok.” David clasped his hands together in his lap and leaned back against the seat. He knew he’d go and mess up their friendship. Perhaps that little move was crossing the line and Archie now thought he had ulterior motives. Just as he’d feared would happen.

Archie opened his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out at first. He looked over to David who was waiting patiently for him to speak. Suddenly he wished that he had taken the champagne that he’d been offered. At least he’d have something to blame for his idiocy. Taking a deep breath, he gathered up what was left of his courage and began to speak. “All day I’ve been thinking about something that I know I shouldn’t be thinking about at all and I don’t want you to be mad at me or think that I’m trying to sabotage our friendship, because I’m not. I love being friends with you and I don’t want that to end, but I cannot shake these feelings that I’ve been having today.”

David turned his head to stare dumbfounded at Archie who suddenly looked away. “What’s wrong, Archie?”

Archie searched for a better way to tell David what he wanted other than just blurting out that he wanted to kiss him. Of course, he found none, so he decided to just go for it and worry about the consequences after the fact. Sometimes it was just easier to act instead of speaking anyway.

David sat in stunned silence, staring wide-eyed at Archie who had just planted a hasty kiss on his lips, until Archie looked away, muttering a small apology. That’s when David snapped out of his daze and spoke. “Don’t be sorry.” He reached out and put his hand on Archie’s shoulder. “I just…I was surprised that you were thinking about the same thing that I had been thinking about all evening.”

“Huh?”

David cracked a smile and nodded his head. “I have been suppressing the urge to kiss you since you opened your hotel room door.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” David moved the hand that lay on Archie’s shoulder to his neck and then to his face where he rubbed his thumb across his jaw. “So um…how about we try that again?”

Archie grinned, nodding his head. Oh yeah, he wanted to try that again. If David’s lips were as soft as they felt against his for that brief second, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy kissing David a lot.

*****

David moaned as their lips melded together. It felt perfect. Just like he’d known they would. He slid his arm around Archie’s back and pulled him closer. Pleased when he felt no resistance from the younger man, David swept the tip of his tongue across Archie’s plump lower lip.

Archie gasped softly as David’s tongue slithered into his willing mouth, intertwining with his own. He reached up, threading his fingers through David’s hair as their kiss deepened and David carefully lowered him down onto the black leather upholstery. Oh yes, Archie was going to enjoy kissing David a whole lot.

As David moved to pull his lips away, Archie’s lips followed, and he grabbed onto his necktie, pulling him back down. Grinning, David gave into Archie, kissing him deliberately as he lowered his own body onto him.

Finally, moments later, Archie was pulling away, gasping for air as David showered his jaw with tender kisses. “Oh my God, Archie,” David breathed against his ear. “You taste like heaven.”

The only sound Archie made was a strangled moan upon feeling David’s mouth latch on to his neck, bathing his olive skin with his warm tongue, and sucking softly on the tender flesh. He let his head fall back, giving David better access as one hand gripped the back of the seat and his other tangled in David’s hair.

David moved his hand leisurely up Archie’s side, wrinkling the crisp white button down shirt that he wore, pulling it from inside his slacks. He slid his palm over Archie’s sculpted chest until he came the knot in the tie at his throat. Tugging gently, he pulled the knot loose.

Archie’s head began to swim as David expertly unbuttoned his shirt while his mouth moved to his throat. He gasped and arched his back slightly as the palm of David’s hand landed on his taut belly. “Oh gosh. Cook…” The cool touch of David’s hand against his heated skin was doing wonderful things to his body. He bit his lower lip and glanced down when he felt David’s fingers lingering near his belt buckle.

“Tell me to stop,” David whispered, knowing that he was treading in dangerous territory. He’d be lying to himself again if he said he hadn’t wanted Archie since the moment he laid eyes on him, but he didn’t want to let him do something that he would later regret. Despite his physical attraction to the young man, his feelings for him ran deeper.

Archie fisted David’s hair in his hand and pulled gently, making the older man look up at him. As their eyes met, Archie’s breathing became more erratic. “Please don’t.”

David closed his eyes and ducked his head back into the nape of Archie’s neck and whined. This was really happening. He raised up sitting on his knees. “Are you sure, Archie?”

Archie nodded. “I’m sure.”

“Ok.” David got up and moved, hunched over, to the other side of the limo. Archie watched as he opened the divider and spoke to the driver. Then suddenly, he was back to him.

“What…”

David placed one knee on the seat between Archie’s legs and grabbed both of his wrists in his hands. “I,” he began as he leaned over the smaller man, pinning his hands above his head. “Told him to drive around for a while.”

Archie’s eyes met his and he smiled as their lips met again in an eager kiss.

*****

Archie’s back arched off of the seat and he grasped onto David’s hair with one hand and the back of the seat with the other. “Oh, Gosh…. Cook…” The older man was doing wonderful things to Archie’s body by way of what could possibly be the most incredible blowjob Archie had ever had. Not that he’d had an abundance of them. A few. And never were they given with such precision and tenderness.

When it was over, David carefully redressed Archie and made his way back up to come face to face with Archie. Archie lay there breathing heavily and staring up at David with a lazy, satisfied look on his face. David smiled down at him. “You ok?” David asked, his face changing to show his concern as Archie’s expression changed and his eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

Archie nodded quickly. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m great. Th-thank you.”

David’s lips twitched as a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Uh…believe me, it was my pleasure.”

Archie grinned and reached up with both hands to tangle his fingers in David’s hair.

David leaned down and pressed his mouth to Archie’s. They kissed leisurely until the limo came to a stop outside of their hotel.

They walked silently but with matching smiles to Archie’s room. Archie unlocked his door and pushed it open before turning back to David. “You uh, wanna come in?”

David shook his head while slipping his arms around Archie. “Goodnight, Archie. Thank you for the wonderful night.”

Archie blushed. “I think I should be the one thanking you.”

David winked. “I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll have breakfast together?”

Archie nodded his head. “Yeah. Breakfast.”

David leaned in and left a soft kiss on Archie’s lips. “Sleep tight.”


	11. Chapter 11

David woke up pretty early the next day and was surprised when the first thing that came to his mind was Archie in the back of the limo, begging him not to stop what he was doing. Shaking his head to rid him of the images, he rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Archie was already awake, pacing around his hotel room, wondering what the day would have in store for him and David. The night before was the last thing he’d expected to come of his trip to Missouri. He was pretty sure that David hadn’t really expected it either. And why had he agreed to have breakfast with him? He wasn’t sure he was ready to face him after he’d let him…. Archie groaned miserably and sat down on the chair by the window. David probably thought he was easy. “Gosh, now you’re acting like a girl, Archuleta!” He scolded himself.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when there was a knock on his door. With a sigh, he finally got up to go open it.

David waited nervously on the other side of the door. It wasn’t like him to be this jittery. He just hoped that the younger man hadn’t decided to regret what happened between them the night before. He jumped slightly when the door in front of him suddenly opened.

Archie smiled. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” David replied his voice a bit more gravely than normal.

“Come on in.” Archie held the door open for him to come inside.

They quickly decided to order breakfast, making decisions about what to have created a nice distraction so that they didn’t have to talk about what had happened the night before, just yet.

However, after their breakfast had arrived and they’d managed to eat in silence, David finally decided that it was time to get it out of the way. “About last night…” he began rather timidly.

Archie almost cringed as he set his juice back down on the room service cart. He’d known this part of their conversation was coming, but he was no more ready for it than he had been a few hours earlier. “What about it?”

“Are you….um…ok with it?”

Archie took a moment to reflect on how much he’d enjoyed the night before. Not just what had happened in the limo, but the entire night had been amazing fun. He smiled fondly upon remembering how good David’s lips felt against his own and how much he’d liked kissing him.

David tilted his head to the side, studying Archie for a moment. The younger man had yet to answer his question, but he was smiling, so that was good. Right? “Archie?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah! I’m…” he quickly cast his eyes downward as his face flushed bright red. “I’m fine with it.”

“You are?” David couldn’t quite hide the excitement in his voice.

“Yeah.” Archie finally listed his head to make eye contact with his older friend. “I mean, I’m more than fine with it.”

David reached out and stole a piece of bacon from Archie’s plate. “I think we should go on a date.”

Archie’s initial glare that he’d tried to send David for stealing his food turned into a confused stare. “A date?”

“Yeah. A date. Like, I’ll pick you up and we’ll go to dinner and I’ll pay, and then we’ll go to a movie where we can sit in the back of the theater and make out, and I can even hold your hand.”

“Don’t you think we’re kinda beyond the first date thing? I mean…”

“Last night happened, and it was wonderful, but honestly, I’d like a do-over.”

“A do-over?”

“Yeah. A chance to do things right.”

“Why do you get to pay?”

David chuckled. So typically Archie. “Because I’m the one who’s asking you out.”

Archie gave David a cheeky grin. He was relieved that he hadn’t said because he was more equipped to pay or even worse; because he was a guy.

“So what do you say? Will you go out with me…oh say, Friday night?”

Giggling at the absurdity of it all, Archie nodded his head. “Under one condition.”

“Oh?” David raised a brow. “What’s that?”

“You can’t make me wait until Friday to kiss you again.” 

David chuckled and got up to move the cart out of the way. “Oh…” he walked over to Archie who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and smirked.

Archie smiled brightly, looking up at the older man as he cupped his face in his warm, undeniably soft hands.

“I think that is a condition that I can live with.” As their lips met once more, David closed his eyes and savored the sweet taste of Archie’s lips.

Archie snaked his arms around David and pulled him down on top of him as they lay back on the bed. The moments passed by slowly as they explored each other’s mouths with soft, curious tongues. Finally, Archie managed to flip them over and straddled David’s thighs.

David gasped when Archie’s mouth latched onto his neck. It wasn’t until that same mouth began to move over his throat and downwards to where the first few buttons of his shirt lay undone that he realized Archie’s intention.

His head began to swim as Archie’s fingers worked numbly at the buttons that remained. “Archie,” he whispered, cautiously. “Wait.”

Archie’s head snapped up and he looked at him, confused by his sudden reaction. “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I just…” he carefully put his hands under Archie’s arms and tugged him up. “We have a plane to catch in a little while. Maybe we should just stick to kissing?”

“Oh.” Archie nodded and rolled to the side where David turned to face him. “So…just kissing?”

David grinned. “Yeah.”

Archie leaned a little closer and their mouths met again, creating a slow rhythm that neither of them would grow bored with.

*****

As they walked through the airport, David’s cell phone rang. He muttered an apology to Archie and took the call. “Hello?”

“Dave?” Andrew’s voice came over the line. “Are you back yet?”

“Yeah. We just landed. Heading towards the baggage claim.”

“Ok. Great. Can you swing by the office? I need to talk to you about a proposal.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Just let me drop Archie off at his place first.”

David closed his phone and gave David a dreadful look. “I have to work.”

Archie laughed lightly at the older man’s pout. “Aw. How sad? I get to go home and sleep!”

“So not fair.”

*****

“Have you lost your mind, Dave?” Andrew asked, waving a hand full of documentation in front of David.

“No. It’s a good idea. Trust me. What would be a better way to make right what Uncle Arthur did?”

“I just…How’s this benefiting AC Construction?”

“It’s not, really.”

“Exactly!”

“Why does it have to?” David asked. It’s not like the buildings are million dollar buildings. We have billions just sitting in untouched bank accounts. What are we going to do with all of that money anyway? Passing it down like Arthur did? Spoil more of today’s youth?”

Andrew sighed heavily. “How many buildings are we talking in the long term?”

“No more than six to begin with.”

“To begin with?”

“Yeah.” David sat down in the chair at his desk while Andrew remained standing on the other side. “If it proves to be a success then we’ll consider more.”

“So we’re looking at a non-profit year.” Andrew stated with a feeling of defeat. “That’s going to kill us with taxes.”

“Don’t worry about it, Drew. I’ve got it all under control.”

Andrew shut the file with the proposal in it, realizing that there really was no point in talking to David at this point. Sometimes his brother really was too charitable for his own good. “How was your trip?”

David beamed, perhaps a little too brightly. “It was great.”

“Uh-huh,” Andrew narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“Something happened. You just lit up like a child on Christmas morning,” Andrew informed him. “Now spill.”

“I um,” David found himself rather flustered just from thinking about it. “I have a date Friday night.”

“Where at? At the shelter?” Andrew asked with a cheeky grin.

David glared at him. “No. We’re going to dinner and a movie.”

“I hope you know that you’re doing.”

“I do.”

Andrew was still skeptical, but at least he was going out on a real date with someone who he wasn’t trying to ‘help’ and someone who wasn’t Allen.

*****

Friday night turned out to be pretty amazing. David picked him up and took him to a small restaurant that overlooked the river. They had dinner and then went to the local movie theater to a watch a movie. Archie’s choice, of course. There wasn’t any making out like David had suggested, but they had held hands through most of the movie. Afterwards, they decided to go for a walk. Along the way, they stopped at Noriega’s for a smoothie.

Danny was working so they were both relieved that they didn’t have to explain anything to Rami. The only downfall of stopping by Noriega’s was that as they were leaving, they ran in to Nate and Kristy.

“Archie?” Nate asked with a grin.

David scowled at the other man when he finally recognized where he’d seen him before.

“Nate,” Archie acknowledged. “Kristy. What a surprise.”

“We’ve missed you.”

“Sure you have,” Archie replied. “I’m sure you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.”

David noticed the mood that Archie was quickly acquiring and there was no way he was no way he was going to let that jerk ruin their date. He grabbed Archie’s arm gently. “Come on baby.” He tugged until Archie followed, leaving Nate staring with his mouth agape.

As they walked on down the street, Archie laced his fingers through David’s. “Thank you.”

David smiled. “No problem. No point in letting him ruin what has, so far, been an amazing night. Right?”

“Right!” Archie laughed and pulled David away from the sidewalk, going towards the small park nearby. They made it to the merry-go-round and Archie sat down on the cool metal.

David raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t been on one of these in years.” He reached out and grasped a metal bar, spinning the merry-go-round slightly. He chuckled, hearing Archie giggle as he grabbed on to the bars to hold on to as he lay back to stare up at the sky. David pushed it around a few more time before jumping on himself. He laid down with his head next to Archie. “This is awesome.”

Archie giggled. “Yep!”

“I had a good time tonight, Archie.”

Archie turned his head to look at David who was staring at him instead of the sky. “So did I.”

There was nothing in the world more satisfying to David than a make out session with Archie as they went round and round on the merry-go-round in the quiet of the night.

When they broke apart, Archie grinned at David who was sporting an extremely happy look as well. “Ya know, the day I met you, I would have never imagined us ending up here.”

David laughed and turned his gaze back towards the sky. “I should say not. You hated me the moment you laid eyes on me.”

“I did not!” Archie protested.

“I’m sorry baby, but you were rude!”

“But I didn’t hate you. I just figured you were like all the other people with money.”

“Well, I’m glad you changed your mind about me.”

“Yeah, well you were pretty persistent. You forced me to see the real you.”

“So how do you like the real me?” David asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Archie shrugged sending David a playful glance. “Aw, I don’t know yet. You seem kind of ok and all. I mean you really do know how to kiss, but I don’t know if that just your, ya know, ploy to distract me and like, make me fall for you or something.”

David chuckled and turned to his side to face Archie with a smirk. “That’s exactly what it is, Archie. Is it working?”

Archie sighed and nodded. It was working. David was just the type of guy he’d always wanted. The type of guy he’d thought Nate was.

David leaned in and gave him another short kiss. “Are you ready to call it a night?”

Archie shook his head. “No. Are you?”

“Nope!” David sat up and reached out for Archie’s hand as he stood. “Come on. Let’s go swing.”

Archie got up, smiling the whole time as they walked hand in hand to the swings.

*****

That night was the first of many dates over the next few weeks. Most of them ended with one of them at the other’s place, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. They enjoyed spending time together, but had not gone further than they had that night in the limo. The subject came up, but neither of them was ready to make that commitment. For some, it wasn’t a big deal, but for them, it was. They wanted to build their relationship first. It seemed like the wise thing to do considering how they’d both been in troubled relationships.


	12. Chapter 12

It was still daylight when Archie glanced out the window of the shelter and saw a familiar red sports car. He grinned happily and wiped his wet hands on the dishtowel before practically running out the back door. He stopped on the top step as he saw the driver get out of the car. He furrowed his brow upon seeing Andrew step out instead of David. “Oh. Hi, Andrew. I thought it was Cook.”

Andrew smiled. “No. Sorry. My car is in the shop, so I’m borrowing his.”

“Oh.” Archie eyed Andrew curiously. It wasn’t like him to show up at the shelter alone and unannounced.

“I was wondering if you and I could talk. You know, confidentially.”

“Um, sure.” Archie was a bit hesitant, but then he reminded himself that it was just Andrew. David’s brother. He felt a little awkward about it, but invited him in nonetheless. “Paula’s office?”

“Ok.” Andrew followed Archie back inside.

“Archie pointed to a chair and told Andrew to make himself comfortable. “So um, what was it that you wanted to talk about?”

“About Dave.”

“Oh.”

“I know that you guys have been seeing each other since the trip to Missouri. Dave still hasn’t told me what happened to change your relationship, but it’s obvious he cares a lot about you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really.” Andrew watched the expressions on Archie’s face change. He didn’t seem to have a clue as to how much his brother cared about him. “David is a very sensitive guy,” Andrew continued to speak. “He has a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve. I’m sure you know this already, though.”

Archie did know this. He’d been around David enough to know that whatever feelings David was having, one could usually tell just by looking at him.

“Please be careful with him.”

Archie furrowed his brown in confusion. “Um, what?”

“Don’t hurt him.”

Although he thought he should somehow be offended by this, he wasn’t. He kind of understood Andrew’s protectiveness. “I don’t plan to.”

“You know about Allen. Right?”

“Yeah. Well, I know a little,” Archie explained with a nod. “Only what Cook has told me.”

Andrew wouldn’t normally do this, but he was almost convinced that David was right about Archie. Maybe he was different from the others. “I’m going to tell you this because I think it will help you in your relationship, should you choose to continue going out.”

“Um,” Archie knew that he should probably feel guilty about this whole conversation, but he couldn’t help his curiosity. “Ok.”

“Allen is a pig.” Ok, so it wasn’t the best way for Andrew to start the conversation, but he liked the idea of getting straight to the point. “He’s manipulative and he uses Dave every chance he gets.”

“I kinda already knew that,” Archie admitted. “I’ve met him.”

“You’ve met him?”

“Yeah. Once.”

“Oh. The last time he was around. I have no idea how he even found Dave since we moved.” Andrew ranted. He was still very annoyed by the audacity of the man and if it weren’t for David’s plea not to do anything, Andrew would give anything to get his hands on him. “Do you know about the abuse?”

“Abuse?” Archie asked in a panicked shock.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Andrew continued, “It’s not physical…at least not that I know of. It’s the mental and emotional abuse.”

“Oh gosh.”

“I know Dave seems like this macho guy who would take no shit from anyone when you first meet him, but he’s really not like that at all. You know.”

Archie agreed with him. David’s personality was nothing like he’d initially thought. He was kind and caring, and like Andrew said, very sensitive.

“Allen has a control over Dave. It’s horrible. He’d managed to make him think that no one would ever want him. He’s given him such a bad self-image that David doesn’t even go swimming in a public place.”

“But why?” Archie asked. “He’s got to know that he’s attractive.”

“No. Actually, Allen reminds him every time he’s around that he isn’t attractive and that he’s lucky to have him, because no one else would even consider him. He calls him fat and a bunch of other derogative things.”

“Oh, my gosh! That’s awful!” Archie declared, feeling his anger rise. How could any person do that to another human being? David was such a gentle soul he deserved nothing like that.

Andrew nodded in agreement. “Now do you understand why I am asking you to please be careful with him?”

Archie nodded, wondering how many times Andrew had had this conversation with someone David was seeing, so he asked.

Andrew shook his head slowly. “Never. You’re the first guy he’s been willing to try anything with since the third time he and Allen broke up. He actually believed the crap that Allen told him.” Any other time David got involved with someone, it had never gone past a date or two. Most of the times it didn’t even go that far. David had a soft spot for people less fortunate than himself. At first, that’s what Andrew thought Archie was going to be. He should have listened to David when he said Archie was different. That should have been his first sign. “And he would kill me if he found out that we had this talk. I just…ya know, wanted to make sure you understand what he’s all about. Because I worry about him and I don’t want to see him hurt again.”

“What if he comes back?” Archie asked timidly. He couldn’t help but wonder if David would still go back to Allen even though he was seeing him.

“I don’t know what will happen,” Andrew answered honestly. “This is new to all of us.” He sighed. “I can only tell you to make sure he knows how much you care about him.”

Archie felt tears prickling his eyes. He did care about David. He cared a lot. More than he’d imagined he ever could. More than he ever wanted to.

Andrew watched Archie silently for a moment. That’s when he realized that David was right. Archie was indeed a special person, and he knew that if anyone could save his brother, it would be Archie.

A while later, after a little more conversation, Andrew left and Archie went back to washing dishes and helping Brooke close up the shelter. He was locking the front doors when David finally showed up. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey!” David replied with an illuminating smile. “Sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I had to cover a meeting for Drew.”

“It’s ok,” Archie replied with a smile of his own while he finished locking the door. Once he was done, he stepped closer to David. “So…” he grinned while casually slipping his arms around the older man’s neck. “Hi.”

David chuckled and wrapped his arms around David’s thin waist. “Hi.”

Then Archie kissed him with absolutely everything he had in him. David was caught off guard so it took him a moment to respond, but once he did, their kiss deepened, and by the time it ended, they could have been mere steps away from having sex right there in the middle of the street.

David finally caught his breath, and he stared at Archie with wide, surprised eyes. “W-what was that for?”

Archie simply smiled and reached up to fix the collar on David’s baby blue shirt. “I just missed you.”

“Really?” David was still bewildered by Archie’s sudden…aggressiveness? “That much?”

“MmmHmm,” Archie responded.

David watched as Archie’s tongue peeked out between kiss-swollen lips while he concentrated on adjusting his tie. This was certainly a surprise.

“Gosh,” the younger man breathed, twisting the tie around his hand. “I love it when you wear a tie.” Before David had a chance to say a word, Archie had jerked him forward and pressed their bodies together while his other hand landed on his backside. “You look so sexy,” he whispered against his ear.

“Fuck, Archie…” David gasped. “What has gotten into you?”

“I…” Archie moaned. “Want you.”

“So, I uh, guess we’re not going to see a movie?” David squeaked, helplessly.

Archie continued to cover David’s jaw in kisses. “Not tonight,” he whispered, breathily.

“My place or yours?”

“Mine’s closer.”

“Ok, then.” David grabbed Archie’s hand and pulled him towards his car.

*****

Once they were inside Archie’s apartment, they stumbled blindly to the bedroom, groping and undressing each other as they made their way down the hall. Archie flipped on the light as he was backed into the room, but David hurriedly turned it back off so that the only light in the room was just a faint slither of moonlight filtering through the blinds. There was no time to protest as he was quickly lowered to the bed, and David was on top of him. “Oh gosh!” Archie gasped upon feeling their naked bodies mold together.

A while later, completely relaxed, they lay curled up under the blankets, kissing slowly and enjoying the afterglow. David was certain that any kind of sexual act with Archie was better than anything he’d ever experienced even though they hadn’t taken that step that would fully solidify their relationship. He hoped that someday they would be able to make that leap, but for now, he was content with what they were doing.

He pressed a kiss to Archie’s damp forehead and sighed. “This wasn’t what I was expecting when I came to pick you up tonight.”

Archie giggled and loosened his grip on David. “I’m hungry.” Chuckling, David rolled over, consequently falling off the bed. “Oh, my gosh!” Archie yelped. “Are you ok?”

David began to laugh. “I’m ok, but if were’ going to do this here again, we have got to get you a bigger bed.” He managed to find the sheet while he was down there, so he wrapped himself in it before getting up. “I’m going to get cleaned up. Then maybe we can get food and watch a movie.”

*****

After taking turns in the bathroom, they raided the fridge and then settled on the couch with their stash to watch a movie. “So how was your day?” David asked while the previews played on the screen.

“It was ok. Work was slow. I think I only rang up like fifteen people in the whole eight hours.”

“Typical Thursday, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Archie repositioned himself so that his head was resting in David’s lap. “How was yours?” 

“Busy. I closed on three deals, and I finally got Andrew to go with me on a project that we’re doing down town.”

“Wow. Why wasn’t he on board with you already?”

“He thought I’d lost my mind. He said it would cause a deficit.”

“Oh. What kind of project is it?”

“We’re restoring some older buildings; rebuilding a few. It’s so sad that the city has lost all its historical buildings. I think this is a cool way to ensure that doesn’t happen again,” David explained as he ran his fingers through Archie’s soft, dark hair. “A few more weeks, and we should be finishing up the first one.”

“That’s really cool of you,” Archie said with a proud smile. It was certainly something that the previous owner would have never even considered. “I’m sure the community will love you for it.”

David smiled. “That’s the plan.”

The two of them stayed on the couch watching the movie until they both fell asleep in each other’s arms.


	13. Chapter 13

Within the next few weeks, the couple’s relationship flourished. Archie found himself wondering how David could be so amazing while David wondered how he’d managed to find someone like Archie. Someone who didn’t seem to care that he had money or that he wasn’t as attractive as some. He found himself falling harder and harder each day, and he was powerless to stop it.

David actually did get a new bed for Archie’s apartment, and although he was thankful, for the gift, Archie still protested. He told David that while he loved the bed, it was way too expensive and way too big. In fact, until it was in, he was almost certain that it wouldn’t fit in his small bedroom.

David, of course, argued that it was perfect and really not that expensive when compared to others in the store.

After their first night in it, Archie was convinced that he was wrong, and David had been right. It was a perfect bed. When he woke up, he was so rejuvenated that he woke David up with his giddiness.

“What is wrong with you?” David asked, groggily as he turned over with his back towards Archie and curled up to his pillow, still blissfully comfortable.

Archie burst into giggles. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t you have to be at work soon?”

“Yeah…” Archie sighed. He then scooted closer to David, slinging an arm over him and resting his chin on the older man’s shoulder. “What’s with you this morning, Mr. Cranky pants?”

“Mmm…” David groaned without opening his eyes. “I was having the most awesome dream.”

“Oh yeah?” Archie asked playfully before nipping at David’s ear. “What was it about?”

David grinned despite his still sleepy state. “Puppies.”

“Ooh…” Archie’s voice was muffled because he’d began planting kisses over David’s neck and along his jaw.

“You’re in a good mood this morning,” David pointed out. “I take it that you slept well?”

“MmmHmm,” Archie responded, grinning mischievously as he slid his hand down over David’s t-shirt covered chest. “You were right. This bed is so perfect.”

David bit his bottom lip as Archie’s hand trailed further down, landing against the front of his boxers. “Archie,” he whispered, his voice a tad bit rougher. “What are you doing?”

Archie giggled and rubbed his hand over the length of David’s cloth covered penis. “Thanking you for the bed.” He latched his mouth to the side of David’s neck and moved his hand to slip beneath the waistband of David’s boxers.

David, now wide-awake, turned to his back and stared up at Archie as the younger man wrapped his fingers around him. “You’ll be late for work,” he informed Archie.

Archie just shook his head and smirked, as he watched David’s facial expression change with each flick of his wrist. He dipped his head back down, pressing his lips to David’s parted ones to initiate a kiss in which David readily accepted. As they took their time exploring each other’s mouths, Archie continued to slide his hand over David’s growing length.

David reached up, resting a hand on Archie butt, massaging the soft flesh through his underwear as they kissed slowly. “Oh baby…” David breathed as he broke away, gasping for air. “That feels so good.”

Archie pulled away from David’s lips with a devious smile, and before David knew what was happening, the younger man disappeared beneath the blankets and he felt his boxers being tugged down. “Oh shit!” He gripped the sheets in his fists as Archie’s warm mouth surrounded the tip of his erection.

When it was over, Archie slid his body up over David’s and smiled down at him as they came face to face.

David was still catching his breath, but managed a small grin as he grabbed onto Archie’s hips, holding him down astride his things. “That was the nicest ‘thank you’ I’ve ever received in return for a gift.”

“Well, it’s a really nice gift,” Archie beamed before reaching down to swat David’s hand away from the front of his own bulging underwear, shaking his head. “I’m gonna be late for work.” He leaned down and planted a soft kiss against David’s lips before getting up to go take a shower.

When he returned to the bedroom, David was already sleeping again. He let him sleep until he was fully dressed and ready to head off to work. Then he went over and leaned over David’s sleeping form. “Cookie,” he whispered against his ear as he ran a hand gently through his tangled hair.

“Hmm?” David groaned, opening his eyes slightly.

“I’m getting ready to leave.”

“Mmmkay.”

“You can stay as long as you want. I’m going to Mom’s for a little while after work. She’s making grape jelly, and I always help with that. So I won’t be home until later.”

“You’re not going to the shelter?” David asked sleepily.

“Not this evening. Brooke has enough people to cover, and I thought maybe we could spend some more time together. Maybe order Thai food and watch a movie or whatever.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll go home and get cleaned up after while. I have a few things to do today, but I’ll come back around seven.”

“Or…” Archie suggested. “I could just come over to your place.”

“Ok. That’s fine.”

“Cool. I’ll pick up food on the way.”

“Mmmkay.”

Archie giggled and kissed David’s forehead. “Go back to sleep, sleepyhead.”

David opened his eyes and reached out to grab Archie when he started to get up. “Wait.”

“What?” Archie asked just before David pulled him down into a searing kiss. “Mmm,” he moaned into the kiss, falling slightly onto David.

A moment later, he let go of Archie and grinned. “Have a good day at work.”

Archie nodded, unable to really think coherently at the moment. “Yeah.” He stared at David for a moment, unwilling to move from his current position. Suddenly he really didn’t want to go to work. “Gosh, I’d love it so much just to stay here in bed with you all day,” he breathed. “But you can’t,” David said, sadly. “You have responsibilities.” He knew Archie took his duties seriously and calling in just to stay home and make out with his boyfriend wasn’t exactly something he would consider calling in for.

After another short kiss, Archie finally made himself get back up. “I’ll see you later. Don’t forget to lock the doors when you leave. Ok?”

“Ok,” David said with a nod as he watched Archie leave. “I really should get up,” he said to himself as he listened for the closing of the apartment door. However, he was too comfortable. So he rolled over and closed his eyes once more.

*****

Lupe smiled brightly when her son walked into the kitchen at around one in the afternoon, carrying a bag of fresh fruit. “Hello, my darling!”

“Hey, Mama. I brought you some fruit. How are you?” He asked as he set the bag down on the counter and moved to give her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Much better now that you’re here. I’ve missed you.”

Archie gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry for not being around much lately. I’ve just been kinda busy.”

Lupe nodded her head knowingly. “I’m sure that Mr. Cook is seeing to that.”

Archie blushed. “Mama.”

“Am I wrong?” She asked as she handed Archie an apron.

“Well,” he hesitated while he busied himself with tying the apron around his waist. “No. Not really.”

“Ok then,” Lupe said.

“How many bushels of grapes did you manage to get this year?”

“Two.” Lupe replied and pointed to the grapes on the kitchen table in which were already washed and pulled from the stems. “So, tell me about Mr. Cook.”

Archie grinned. “What do you want to know?”

“Well,” she began as she pulled the strainer from cabinet beneath the sink. “For starters, how serious is it?”

“Um,” of course she would have to start out with a question that he wasn’t quite sure how to answer. “I don’t know.”

“Oh come now, Archie. Has he spent the night?” Her eyes grew wide. “Have you spent the night?”

“Yes,” he replied as he washed his hands. “To both questions.”

“Then it’s pretty serious.”

“I guess so,” he replied as his cheeks flushed a shade brighter.

Lupe stopped rummaging through her utensil drawer and stared at Archie who was now eating a handful of grapes. 

“What?”

“You’re in love.”

Archie coughed, having sucked a grape down his throat. “What?”

Lupe laughed and patted her son on the back. “There is a look in your eyes. You’re in love.”

“We haven’t been seeing each other long enough to fall in love.”

“It only takes one second to fall, sweetie.”

Archie remained silent and reached above him to pull a pot from the hook on the pot rack. He hadn’t allowed himself to consider the fact that he was in love with David. The thought, albeit a nice thought, terrified him. He’d been hurt one too many times by someone that he was in love with. He really didn’t want to take that road again.

“Archie?” Lupe said softly, realizing that perhaps she had said too much. She placed a gentle hand on Archie’s shoulder. “Honey?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah. I’m fine, Mama.”

“I’m sorry if I was too…”

“No!” Archie assured her. “It’s ok. I just…I don’t know. Cook is wonderful and amazing and I think I may really be falling in love with him, but I’m just scared. Ya know?”

Lupe smiled warmly. “What are you afraid of?”

Archie busied himself with filling the strainer with grapes to grind through. “I don’t want to get hurt again,” he finally mumbled.

This saddened Lupe. It was a shame that someone had tainted her son’s trust. She wished that there was something she could do to reassure him, but the truth was, you just never know about anyone. “He’s not Nate, Archie.”

“I know that. He’s nothing like Nate to be honest.”

“Does he treat you well?”

Archie grinned because the first thought that came to his mind was his new bed. “He does. He’s quite doting sometimes.”

“That’s wonderful, Archie. I’m glad to hear that.”

Then Archie began to tell her more until he was practically gushing about how perfect David was. Lupe was more than happy to hear everything that he wanted to share. Her kids were her life and the only thing she ever wanted was for them to be happy. It was obvious that David was making her son very happy. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, she could tell that he was beyond falling.

“Tonight, we’re going to have Thai food and watch movies,” he finished.

“Sounds wonderful,” she said as she went about turning on the stove. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I think it’s time that you bring him home.”

Archie stared blankly at his mother. “Huh?”

Lupe smiled and wiped her hands on her apron. She went over and grabbed the cell phone that Archie had laid on the countertop. She handed it to him. “Call him. Invite him over.”

“N-now?” Archie asked.

“Yes. Now.” Lupe moved the pot that Archie had already strained the grapes into. She put it on the stove. “Maybe he would like to learn how to make jelly.”

Archie lifted an eyebrow. “Somehow I don’t think that he will.”

“Then he can watch,” Lupe suggested. “I want to get to know him.”

“Mama, he’s probably busy.”

“Well, you won’t know unless you call him.”

Archie finally gave in and flipped his phone open. He dialed David’s number and waited for him to answer.

“Hey, baby!”

Archie giggled. “Hey.”

“How’s the jelly making going?”

“Fine. What are you doing?”

“Right now I’m just standing in my closet wondering what to wear. Why do you ask?”

“Well, my Mom made me call you,” he said as he shot an evil glare his mother’s way.

“Really? What for?”

“She would like it very much if you came over to the house for a visit, but it’s totally ok if you don’t want to. I know you’re probably busy and stuff…”

“Arch…I just said I am standing in my closet debating what to wear. How much more bored could I be right now? I’d love to come over.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ve been wanting to meet your Mom for a while now.”

“You’ve already met her, Cook.”

“In a grocery store for like two seconds. When you still hated me. That so does not count.”

“I didn’t hate you!” Archie exclaimed, wondering when and if David would ever let that go.

“What ever, baby. I’d be happy to visit.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. Let me get dressed and I’ll be right over.”

Archie smiled brightly. “Ok. Great! I’ll um, see you when you get here, then.”

“Alright. Later, Babe.”

“Later.”

When he looked up, Lupe was giving him an ‘I told you so’ look and stirring the grape juice on the stove as it heated. “I take it that he is coming over.”

“Yeah. He’ll be here in a little bit.”

“Archie!” Came the voice of his little sister followed by the slamming of the front door. “Oh my gosh! Where have you been?”

Archie smiled as the little girl ran into the kitchen followed by his other sisters and his brother. “Hey Amber!”

“I have missed you so much!”

“Me too,” Jasmine chimed as they both crashed into Archie, wrapping their arms around him. “When are you moving back home?”

“He’s not.” Daniel replied before Archie had a chance to. “How many times do we have to tell you that. Besides, he wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep because I like having my own room.”

Lupe gave Daniel a warning look and explained to the girls that Archie still had his own place to live. “Oh and guess what, girls. Archie’s new boyfriend is coming over.”

“Now?” Amber asked.

“In a little while,” Archie explained, hoping that they wouldn’t harass David too much. Nate had always hated coming over to his mom’s house because kids just weren’t his thing, and his sisters could be a bit much to handle.

“Cool!” Jasmine said enthusiastically.

“I’m sure he’ll love you guys just as much as Nate did,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes at the girls.

“Did you have a bad day at school?” Archie asked.

“No. I had a wonderful day.”

“Ok, girls,” Lupe ushered the girls towards the living room. “Out of the kitchen, your brother and I are busy. Go do your homework.” She looked at Daniel. “That means you too, buster.”

The three children left the kitchen and Lupe turned towards Archie. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok. I just wonder if he’ll ever get over it.”

“In time, sweetie. He just misses you.”

The two of them went back to work, waiting for David to get there.

*****

A little while later, as they were filling the first batch of jars, the doorbell rang. Archie gasped and looked at his mom with wide eyes. She simply smiled and took the kettle from his hands. “Go. Hurry before your sisters get there and scare the poor boy away.”

Archie scrambled out of the kitchen and thankfully made it before his siblings did. He opened the door and gasped as he came face to face with a giant bouquet of flowers. “Oh my gosh!”

David peeked around the flowers and grinned. “Hi.” He then raked his eyes up and down Archie’s body, taking in the frilly, flower patterned apron around his waist. He smirked.

“Oh no!” Archie said realizing that David was going to have something smart to say. “Don’t. Don’t say a word.”

David just laughed and told him that he looked beautiful as he stepped inside.

Archie shut the door and gave David a quick kiss on the cheek. “Beware, my sisters are home and they’re very excited that you’re here.” 

“Awesome!” David replied just as Lupe joined them in the foyer. “Hello, Mrs. Archuleta.”

Lupe grinned. “Hello. Please, you can call me Lupe.”

“Alright,” he replied. “These are for you.”

“Oh, my!” Lupe exclaimed as she took the bouquet of flowers from him. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” David replied. Then he looked to the side where two young girls and a boy who looked to be a few years younger than Archie stood. He grinned at them. “Hello.”

Archie watched in disbelief as David knelt down to his sisters’ level and began talking to them before handing them each a single flower and small box of chocolates, causing them to squeal and run off. David smiled and stood back up. Turning to the boy, he said, “You must be Daniel.”

Daniel nodded. “Nice to meet you, David.”

“You too,” David replied as he shook his hand. “Oh! I brought you something too.”

“Really?” Daniel asked in disbelief.

“Of course,” David replied. “You like baseball, right?”

“Yes. I love it.”

“Great.” David reached into his back pocket and pulled out a couple of baseball cards. “These are from my own personal collection. I had a few duplicates.”

Daniel looked at the cards as they were handed to him, his eyes growing wide. “But…but these are signed!”

David laughed. “I know. I had a friend who was on the team at one time.”

“Oh my gosh! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

Daniel looked at his Mom and Archie and then back to David. “Excuse me. I have to go call my friends.”

Lupe smiled as she watched her youngest son run off to his bedroom. “Thank you, David. You really didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

She nodded understandingly before looking at the bouquet in her hands. “I’ll go put these in water.”

When they were alone once more, Archie smiled at David with moist eyes. “You have no idea what you just did,” he whispered.

David slipped an arm around Archie’s waist and pulled him into a hug. “Oh, I think I do.”

“Thank you,” Archie whispered, feeling his heart swell.

“I brought something for you, too.”

Archie pulled away from their hug. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you bring me?”

“This,” David replied before pulling Archie back in and kissing him. Archie pretty much melted in his arms as they kissed fervently for several long moments. “How was that?” he asked breathily when he finally pulled away.

Archie smirked and stepped back. “I think I got gypped. You could have brought me autographed baseball cards or chocolate.”

David’s mouth dropped open and he gave Archie a disbelieving look as the younger man started to walk away. Then he shook his head, laughing as Archie threw him a teasing look over his shoulder.

“Come on. Mom and I aren’t finished with the jelly. Would you like to watch?”

“Um,” David wasn’t sure how entertaining this would be, but it was giving him more time to spend with Archie. “Sure.”

Archie led him to the kitchen where his mom was putting the lids on the last of the jars that they’d been filling. “We’re getting ready to start the second batch.”

“Ok.” David took a seat on a stool at the island on the opposite side from where Archie and Lupe were working. “I’ve never seen anyone make jelly before. Is it fun?”

Lupe laughed softly. “It’s not all that fun, but the jelly is much better than the stuff you buy at the supermarket.”

Archie took a rubber spatula and scrapped a bit of jelly from the side of the pot they’d cooked it in and spread it on a slice of his mom’s homemade bread. “Here. Taste.”

David took the bread from Archie and looked at it for a moment before biting into it. “Mmm,” he mumbled as he chewed.

Lupe and David both smiled, happy that their hard work was well received. “How is it?”

“Very good,” David replied. “You’re right. It is better than store bought. Is the bread homemade as well?”

“Yes,” Lupe replied.

“Mama doesn’t believe in buying bread at the store,” Archie said. “She’s a great cook.”

“Well if this is any indication, I’ll have to agree with you on that. It’s delicious.”

“Thank you,” Lupe said as she handed the strainer back to Archie. “Ready for the next batch?”

“Yup.” Archie then busied himself with filling it once more.

Lupe made small talk with David while they were working on the second batch and Archie was happy that they were hitting it off so well. He found himself just watching them sometimes. Nate would never even dreamed of spending the afternoon watching them make anything. In fact, he would have laughed at the idea. David, on the other hand, seemed happy to be there.

By the time they started on the third batch, David was donning his own frilly apron and he and Archie were doing it by themselves while Lupe went on to begin dinner preparations. “This is actually pretty cool,” he told Archie as they filled their jars.

“I’m glad you like it because I’m telling Mama that you’ll help her with the apple butter.”

“Apple butter?”

“Yep.”

“How do you make that?”

“With apples.”

David glared at Archie. “I know that! What do you have to do to the apples?”

“Peel them, cut them, and them cook them until you have applesauce. Then you cook them more and add spices and stuff.”

“Ah. It sounds harder than grape jelly.”

“It’s not.” Archie replied. “Just a bit more time consuming.”

David became quiet for a moment while he concentrated on not spilling the jelly. Then he noticed that Archie had stopped helping and was staring at him. “What?”

“I just can’t believe that you’re standing here in my mom’s kitchen making jelly.”

David laughed softly. “Well, ya know, it’s not the first time I’ve put on a frilly apron for you.”

Archie giggled. “This is true.”

David leaned in, stealing a quick kiss. “I just love spending time with you. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing.”

Archie’s face turned a slight shade of pink and his heart fluttered. He couldn’t stop himself from kissing his boyfriend again, this time making it last a little longer. So long, in fact, that David put the kettle and spoon down and pulled him into his arms.

“Well, I’m glad to see the jelly is coming along so well,” Lupe said, causing the men to jump apart, startled. She simply laughed and shooed them out of the way so she could finish up.

David gave Archie an embarrassed look in which Archie waved off. His mother walking in on them kissing wasn’t exactly the worst thing that could have happened.

“You two just go on out of here. I’ll finish up and call you when dinner is ready.”

Archie agreed and grabbed David’s hand, pulling him towards the living room.

*****

“I had an enormous amount of fun tonight,” David told him as they entered David’s house.

“I’m glad. Sorry that we ended up having dinner at Mama’s place instead of the Thai.”

David shook his head. “No! It’s fine. Your mom’s food is much better.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. I mean, you’re the one who loves Thai so much anyway.”

“True,” Archie said with a laugh as he flopped down onto the couch.

“Your family is amazing.”

“You really think so?”

“Of course!” David sat down next to him. “I think we hit it off rather well.”

“Yeah. I think so, too.” Archie agreed. “Even with Daniel. That’s a task. He’s still upset with me for moving out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s always kind of a smart butt when he talks to me.”

“He seemed fine tonight.”

“Yeah,” Archie curled up on the corner of the couch. “After you brought him those awesome cards.”

“You really think he liked them?”

“Oh my gosh! Yes. He was on cloud nine for the rest of the night.”

“And the girls? Do you think they liked me?”

“Are you kidding? They loved you! Nate would have never treated them like you did.” Archie explained, thinking about how David had actually got down on the floor before dinner and played with his little sisters.

“Oh?”

“Nate doesn’t like kids very much and his temper was kind of short with them.”

“How is that even possible. They’re so cute!”

Archie laughed. “They can be a handful sometimes.”

“I love kids,” David said. “Jazzy and Amber are little sweethearts.”

“You’re very good with them.”

“Thanks.” David grabbed the remote from the coffee table and laid down, resting his head against Archie’s thigh. “So when are we making apple butter?”

Archie cracked up laughing. “You don’t have to help us. I was only joking with you.”

“Well,” David asked as he clicked on the TV, “what if I want to help?”

Archie’s laughter came to an abrupt halt. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“Oh,” Archie said softly as he began to run his fingers through David’s hair. “It will be in the fall sometime around October.”

“Cool. Then it’s a date.”

Suddenly Archie’s mind was whirling. October. That was almost a year away. That meant that David was planning on sticking around. He grinned, biting his lower lip between his teeth, this day just may have been the best day of his life.


	14. Chapter 14

The morning light filtered into his bedroom and David squinted against its brightness, wanting to curl back up and sleep some more. However, he knew with his schedule that day, there was no way he could sleep in. He groaned and tossed the covers off of himself, just as his cell phone rang. He picked it up from the nightstand and looked at the caller id as he sat up. He almost dropped his phone when he recognized the number. “Shit,” he groaned. He let it go to voice mail, but listened to the message as soon as it popped up on the phone.

After listening to the message a few times, he realized what time it was and how long he’d sat there. He tossed the phone to the side and got up. He hurried through his morning routine and before long; he was heading out the door.

Andrew met him at his office door with a bright smile and a steaming cup of coffee. “Good morning, big brother!”

David raised a curious brow and took the cup from him. “What’s got you so perky this morning?”

“I received a phone call last night. Vanderhoff liked our proposal. They chose us,” Andrew replied happily.

“Seriously?” David asked in an almost unbelieving tone.

“Yes! This is huge!”

“I know.” David pushed through his office door in a daze. He set his cup down on his desk and shrugged off his jacket.

Andrew took a seat on the corner of David’s desk. “You know what this means though?”

“We’re going to be putting in more hours?”

Andrew shook his head. “No. It means that your restoration projects may need to be put on hold.”

“Absolutely not,” David replied as he began going through some files on his desk, looking for his calendar, which was buried beneath the clutter.

“Dave?”

“No way, Andrew.”

Just then, David’s secretary came in carrying a stack of papers and a small collection of post-it notes. “Good morning, Mr. Cook.” She laughed giddily. “And um, Mr. Cook.”

“Good morning, Alex,” David greeted while Andrew sent her a flirtatious smile that made her blush and almost drop her stack of papers. David pursed his lips in amusement and studied the two for a moment before taking a seat. “What do you have there?”

“Oh! Um, this is the Vanderhuff proposal. It needs your approval so we can get the ball rolling,” she replied, handing him the top half of her files. “And these? These are the new building codes.”

David took them from her and flipped through the insanely large stack of codes. “All of these are new?” He asked, feeling dread already.

“Mostly revisions.”

He sighed and tossed them to the side of his desk. “Ok. Thank you. Anything else?”

“Yes. Several phone calls,” she replied, handing over the post-it notes. “These four were from last evening after you left and these two are from this morning.”

Andrew winked at his brother’s secretary as she turned to leave the office and then he turned his attention back to David. His brother was staring intently at a yellow post-it. “Dave?”

“Hmm?”

“Something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh!” David wadded up the post-it and tossed it into the trashcan next to his desk. “No. Everything is fine.” He leaned in, crossing his arms on his desk. “Where were we?”

Although he knew David was lying through his teeth, he decided to let it slide for now. “The restor…”

“No,” David cut him off. “We can’t just quite in the middle of the project. There has to be another way,” he insisted with a wave of his hand before picking up the building codes that he’d previously set aside. “Call Carly and see if there is any way we can borrow some staff from them.”

Sometimes Andrew really wished he knew what went through his brother’s mind. This was one of those times. Obviously, David wasn’t even going to consider a delay in his project. He had no idea why something of such little importance was number one on his list of priorities. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Why is this thing so important to you? I mean, I understand that you want to get AC Construction back in the community’s good graces, but I can’t help but wonder if there is another reason.”

“Of course there isn’t another reason,” David replied defensively. “I just like to finish what I start.”

“Uh-huh.” Andrew stood up and walked towards the door. “You know, if you’re doing this for Archie, then I think you should consider his reaction. It might not be what you want it to be.”

David furrowed his brow and glowered at Andrew for a moment before shaking his head bewilderedly. “What could Archie possibly have to do with this project?”

Andrew shrugged and pulled the door open. “I wouldn’t know.”

After he was gone, David ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath before dropping his head to his desk and groaning. His day hadn’t started out on the right note at all.

*****

Meanwhile across town at the Super Mart, Archie was taking his first break of the morning. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed David’s office. He spoke briefly with Alex before being transferred to David.

“Hey, baby,” David greeted as he picked up his line.

“Hey,” Archie replied, smiling at how David always greeted him like that on the phone. “You busy?”

“Never too busy for you,” he replied.

“Oh. Um…wow. Ok.” Archie sat down on the curb outside the back door. “I was just calling to remind you about dinner tonight. Mama is making a pot roast and mashed potatoes along with her homemade butterscotch pie for dessert.”

“Sounds delicious. I wouldn’t miss it for anything. You know how much I love your Mom’s cooking,” David informed him. “I think I’ve gained like ten pounds since I started having dinner there once a week.”

Archie rolled his eyes. They’d only been eating at his mom’s on Tuesdays for about a month “You have not.”

“Whatever.”

“Claudia and Adam are coming tonight.”

“Awesome. It’s always interesting when they’re there.” David had found himself really enjoying the Archuletas’ company. It did make him miss his own family a little bit, even though he never had the same closeness with his family that Archie had with his. That did exclude his relationship with Andrew, of course. The two of them had always been close.

“Yeah. And Dan is bringing along his new girlfriend. I’m excited to meet her.” Daniel had since warmed up to his brother and wasn’t mad anymore. He even told him that he liked his new boyfriend. That alone made Archie very happy. He told David about it later and thanked him for being such an amazing person. He smiled thinking about how much his whole family seemed to love David. He figured it must be a good sign.

The two of them talked on the phone until Archie realized that his break was over. He then said goodbye to David and hung up the phone before getting up to return to his register.

****

Later that afternoon, Andrew sat perched on the chair that he’d pulled up to Alex’s desk. He’d managed to finish up a few things, and his idea of taking a break was finding out all he could about the young woman. He’d been pursuing her for weeks, but she wasn’t down with the idea of mixing business with pleasure. Of course, Andrew pointed out that she didn’t work for him so it was ok. She simply laughed and disagreed. That didn’t stop Andrew from trying though.

“Excuse me,” she said, interrupting Andrew’s rambling when the phone rang.

Andrew sat back and waited while she took the phone call and then paged David. However, when Andrew heard the name of the caller, he was out of his chair and barging into David’s office.

David was just lifting the phone from its cradle when he was startled by his brother bursting through the door. He looked up and met Andrew’s furious eyes. “Drew?”

Andrew grabbed the phone from him and promptly slammed it back down, hanging up on the caller. “Don’t you dare talk to him,” Andrew warned.

“What the fuck?”

“Bad idea, Dave.”

David sat back in his chair, sighing heavily in defeat.

Andrew stood in front of his desk, staring at him in disbelief. “The note this morning was from him, wasn’t it?” He said accusingly. He shook his head when David looked away, refusing to answer. “Why would you even consider talking to him, Dave?”

David shrugged. “He said he had something important to tell me.”

“I’m sure he did,” Andrew rolled his eyes. “I love you, David. I need you, baby. Could you loan me a hundred grand?” Andrew raised his brow at his brother’s icy glare. “What? Was I off on the amount?”

“Don’t be an ass, Drew.”

“Me? Did you forget about your boyfriend?”

David’s head snapped up, and he looked at Andrew with wide eyes and stammered. “No. No. Of course I didn’t forget about him.”

“Why waste your time listening to that…that piece of shit when you have someone like Archie here?” David ignored Andrew and went about with the paperwork he had been working on before he was interrupted with the phone call. “Dave, Archie cares more about you than Allen ever did. Can’t you see that?”

“I do see that,” David said softly.

“Then why let Allen even attempt to come between you?”

David tapped his pen on the pad of paper laying on his desk. “I am afraid I’ll just end up being a disappointment to him,” he finally said, giving Andrew a troubled look. “I still can’t fathom how he could be interested in someone like me. He deserves better.”

Andrew was utterly surprised that David was opening up to him like this. Most of the time when it concerned Allen, all they did was fight. Except of course the few times that David had come to him with a broken heart in need of some sort of comfort. Once he’d licked his wounds though, he was back to being this closed book that he couldn’t pry open. It was really frustrating sometimes. “How can you think that?” 

“I’ve seen his ex. He’s gorgeous and flawless. Everything that I’m not.”

“Dave…” Andrew sighed despairingly and sat down in the chair across from David. “Archie doesn’t care about that.”

“How do you know that, Drew? I didn’t think Allen did either.” 

“Well, the difference between Archie and Allen is that Allen is a shallow son of a bitch and Archie is not.” 

David laughed cynically at the irony of their current argument while shaking his head. “Wait,” he finally said with a hint of irritation. “Way back when we first met Archie, you totally against me getting involved with him.”

“Yeah. That was before I knew more about him.”

“You still don’t know him that well,” David retorted. “You’ve only hung out with us a hand full of times.” 

“I know he makes you happy,” Andrew countered. “I know he doesn’t care about your money more than he does you, and I know that he doesn’t care that you’re not perfect.”

“Right.”

“Look Dave, I’ve talked to Archie.” He took a deep breath and considered his fate once more before telling David the rest. “About you.” He saw the immediate look in David’s eyes and threw his hands up to stop him from speaking before he was finished. “I just wanted to be sure that he wasn’t going to end up hurting you in the same way Allen has. You’re too nice for your own good sometimes, Dave. I don’t trust as easily as you do.”

“What the fuck did you tell him?”

“Minor details,” Andrew replied cautiously, but knew David was seeing through him like an open window.

“Damn it, Drew!” David stood up, slamming his hand down on the desk. “What gives you the right to do shit like that?”

“I care about what happens to you.”

David began to pace furiously in front of the large windows behind his desk. He felt betrayed and even more pathetic than he already was. Archie probably thought he was pretty sad, having his little brother looking out for him. He cringed at the thought. Instead of Archie becoming his charity case, it was probably the other way around. “Ya know, Andrew? If you cared so fucking much about me, you would stay the hell out of my life! I’m sick and tired of having to hear you lecture me every time I fuck up. It’s my life, Drew. I make the decisions. I suffer the consequences.”

Andrew steeled himself against David’s out lash. It wasn’t much different than other times except David had never suggested for him to stay out of his life. That was new.

“How dare you take the liberty of talking to my boyfriend? How dare you tell him such private things? If I wanted him to know what a tragic piece of shit I really am, I would have told him myself!” He gave one more exasperated groan and walked briskly to the door. With one hand on the knob, he motioned for Andrew to leave with the other. “Get out,” he said, somewhat regaining his composure as he opened the door. “I don’t want to see you back in here again today. Maybe longer.”

Andrew got up, feeling pretty dreadful. He straightened his suit and walked over to the door where his brother stood. He looked him straight in the eyes. “He loves you.”

David turned his head, refusing to let Andrew win. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it. He knew his day was pretty much shot at this point so there really wasn’t much point in getting back to work on his proposals, but he didn’t want to leave the solitude of his office at the moment either. He went back to his desk and sat down with the intent of at least attempting to do something constructive until his next meeting, but then his cell phone rang. Knowing immediately who it was, he reached in his pocket to grab the small device.

****

Lupe passed the mashed potatoes to Claudia while never taking her eyes off of her oldest son who was sitting in his chair seeming lost in thought. “Maybe you should try calling him again, sweetie.”

“Oh,” Archie jumped slightly when Adam nudged him. “Sorry. What?”

“I was saying maybe you should try calling David again,” Lupe repeated.

Archie blinked a couple of times before putting his fork down on his untouched plate. “Yeah. I guess I should. Excuse me.” He got up and left the dining room, digging for his cell phone. He waited until he was outside on the front porch before he finally dialed David’s number. He’d been trying to call his cell phone all evening, but he wasn’t answering. This time was no different. He got his voice mail once again. With a sigh, he decided to call the office. Maybe he got delayed or something. Of course, he would have thought the older man would have called had that been the case. He was so caught up in mentally listing all the reasons that David would have missed dinner without calling he didn’t hear the phone being picked up on the other end and was startled when he heard the familiar voice.

“Oh gosh!” He gasped. “You’re…you’re ok.”

“Archie?”

“Why didn’t you call? I was so worried,” he began rambling. “I was afraid something might have happened. I kept thinking of all these awful scenarios and…Oh my gosh, don’t ever do that again!”

“Archie. Whoa…calm down.”

Archie wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. He hadn’t realized that he’d been crying until he tasted the saltiness of his tears on his lips. He figured it was just the relief of knowing that David was ok making his emotions run wild. “Um…sorry,” he finally said. “I just couldn’t get in touch with you earlier and then when you didn’t show up for dinner, I kind of let my imagination run wild.”

He could hear the smack of skin on skin and he assumed it was David slapping his hand against his forehead as he often did when he remembered something important. “Shit! Archie, I’m so sorry,” he said. “I got caught up in a meeting, and it totally slipped my mind to call you when it was over. I’m kind of swamped with paperwork that has to be done as soon as possible.”

“It’s ok,” Archie told him while sitting down on the porch swing. “I’m just relieved to know nothing bad happened.”

“I’m fine,” David insisted. “Tell Lupe that I’m sorry for missing dinner. I’m sure it was wonderful.”

“She’ll understand,” Archie said with a smile. “Amber on the other hand? I’m not so sure.”

David chuckled. “Tell her I’ll make it up to her the next time.”

“I will,” Archie promised. “So um, how late do you think you’ll be stuck at the office?”

“Oh…” David sighed. “A few more hours, I imagine.”

“Oh. Ok. Well uh, I better let you go so you can get some work done. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow. Goodnight, Archie.”

“Goodnight.” Archie shut his phone and sat on the swing for a while longer before going back into the house with his family.

“Is everything ok?” Lupe asked.

“Oh. Yeah. He just got tied up in a meeting and forgot to call,” Archie explained as he took his seat. “He said to tell you he’s sorry that he missed dinner.”

“He could come by later,” Lupe suggested.

“No. He’s going to be working pretty late.”

Lupe remained silent for a moment before pushing her chair back and standing up. She disappeared into the kitchen, returning a few moments later carrying two divided dishes with lids. “I’ll bet the boy is hungry. What do you think?”

Archie raised a brow at his mom. “Um…”

“And I bet he could use a little company.”

“Mom…”

“Since he can’t come to dinner, you should take dinner to him. Wouldn’t you agree?” She asked looking at the other children and their guests as she began to pile food into the dishes.

Archie looked around the table and everyone was agreeing with Lupe. He grinned. “I guess I’m taking David’s dinner to him.”


	15. Chapter 15

When Archie arrived at AC Construction, he went to the front door and knocked on the glass, waving to the night watchman. The night watchman hurried up and opened the door, recognizing Archie from the few times that he’d been there with David. He grinned and unlocked the door. “Good evening, Mr. Archuleta.”

Archie smiled politely at the older man. “Hello, Ernie. I just stopped by to bring David his dinner. Do you know if he’s still here?”

“Yeah,” Ernie replied as he locked the door once again. “Both of them are still here. I guess it’s been a busy day.” He motioned towards the elevator. “You know the way up.”

“Thanks,” Archie said, already heading off towards the single elevator against the north wall of the lobby.

When he reached the floor where David’s office was located, the doors opened to reveal Andrew standing in the hallway, waiting for the elevator himself. “Hey, Andrew,” he greeted with a wide grin.

“Archie,” Andrew acknowledged while stifling a yawn.

“David in his office?”

“I guess,” Andrew replied, grimly. “I haven’t seen him since this afternoon.

“Oh. Um, I brought dinner to him since he couldn’t make it over to Mom’s. Have you ate?” 

Andrew smiled, thinking that his brother was probably the biggest idiot in the world. “Not yet. I’m going to grab something on the way home.”

“Are you sure? I have plenty here. Mom piled the plates up pretty high with pot roast and mashed potatoes.”

“Yeah,” Andrew nodded as he stepped into the elevator. “But thank you.”

“Ok. Well, goodnight then,” Archie told him before he turned to walk down the corridor.

Andrew took another second to decide if he should warn Archie of what to expect when he got to David. After deciding that he probably shouldn’t let the boy walk into a hornet’s nest, he stuck his arm out, catching the doors as they began to close. “Archie, wait.”

Archie turned around to see Andrew jogging towards him.

“Um, Dave is…well,” Andrew sighed. “He may not be in the best of moods right now.”

The younger man gave Andrew a confused look. “Really? He sounded fine on the phone. Did something happen?”

“Well, um…you talked to him on the phone?”

“Yeah. Just a little while ago.”

“Oh. Ok. Never mind then.” Andrew started to turn around, but then he thought better of it and decided to come clean. “Oh shit, Archie. I kind of told him about out talk.”

“You what?” Archie stared wide-eyed at the other man. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. This could be bad.

“I’m sorry,” Andrew apologized. He felt really bad about the situation he may have inadvertently put Archie in.

Archie didn’t reply for a moment. He was too busy thinking of the reactions that David might have to learning that he’s talked about his personal stuff with his brother. He probably lost what little trust he may have had in him to begin with. But he didn’t sound angry on the phone. He frowned. Maybe that’s why he didn’t come to dinner. “Um, why did you tell him?” Archie asked. He was trying really hard not to lash out at Andrew. He figured he’d at least let him explain first. It irritated him though because, after all, Andrew had been the one come to him and initiate the whole conversation. It wasn’t like he’d gone to him looking for answers.

Andrew sighed heavily. “I was trying to get him to believe that you don’t care about him not being in perfect physical shape and all of that stuff.”

Archie was now even more confused. “What? He thinks that stuff matters to me?”

Andrew nodded. “He doesn’t want to be a disappointment to you.”

“I don’t understand. I mean, I thought things were going well for us.”

Andrew hated seeing the sad look on Archie’s face. He was too much of a good spirit to have his heart broken. In his opinion, he and David were the perfect couple. They complimented each other nicely. “He’s messed up, man.” Andrew explained with a shake of his head. “And that son of bitch that screwed him over won’t leave him alone.”

“He’s back?” Archie shrieked.

Andrew shook his head. “No, but he’s been calling.”

Archie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. This was great. “Ok,” he said, simply. “Thanks for the heads up, Drew. I appreciate it.”

“Yeah. Well, I figured it was the least I could do to save you from a possible shark attack. It’s not like I can get much higher up on Dave’s shit list.”

Archie gave him an empathetic smile. “He’s lucky to have a brother that cares about him.”

Andrew scowled. “Somehow, I don’t think he sees it that way.”

“Someday, he will.”

“I hope,” Andrew said with a wry smile. “Well, I guess I should let you go now. I uh, just wanted to let you know what happened so you wouldn’t be surprised if he brought it up.”

Archie nodded appreciatively. “Thank you.”

The two of them said their goodbyes and parted ways. Archie dreaded what kind of mood he might actually find David in, but he knew he had to find out. He took one more deep breath before walking on up to David’s office and knocking on the door. He waited patiently for an answer but heard nothing. Finally, after waiting a few moments, he reached for the knob to open the door and peek inside.

*****

David kept his eyes fixated on the twinkling light on the front of the building across the street as he loosened the tie around his neck. He had so many things on his mind that he couldn’t even concentrate on just one thing, so he’d decided to take a break from the flood of paperwork that seemed to have no end. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the door to his office open. Nor did he hear Archie walk across the room and set their dinner on the corner of his desk. It was only when the younger man came to stand beside of him, that he noticed his presence. “Archie!” He said, as he turned around, slightly startled. “What are you doing here?”

“Mama insisted that I bring you dinner.”

David smiled. Lupe. Always thinking about others. Just like her son. That thought made him pause and bite his lip curiously. He wished he could get rid of his insecurities and just forget every negative thing that Allen had ever said to him. “You didn’t have to do that,” he said with a small smile. “I could grab something later.”

“It was no problem,” Archie insisted. He looked around at David’s desk, cluttered uncommonly with stacks of papers and empty coffee mugs. “Wow! It looks like you have been really busy.”

David turned his gaze back to his desk. “Yeah. We got this new account, and it’s turning out to be more of a nightmare than I ever expected it to be. Plus I have the first building in my restoration project being finished up soon, so there is all kinds of paper work there. It’s never ending.”

Archie scrunched up his nose. “Do you even have time to sit down and eat?”

David nodded. “I need a break.” He slipped his arms around Archie and leaned in, planting a kiss against his lips. “Hi, by the way.”

Archie grinned. “Hi.” He was surprised that David didn’t seem to be in a bad mood at all. Maybe he wasn’t as mad as Andrew thought. When David let go of him, he walked over to the desk and went about getting the food.

“You haven’t ate either?”

Archie shook his head and took a seat on one of the chairs at David’s desk. “Nope. Mama was so worried about you getting food, she packed mine up too.”

David chuckled and opened the container that Archie had given him. It was, despite the twenty-minute commute, still warm. “You’re mother is amazing.”

Archie nodded as he chewed thoughtfully. “Well,” he said after he swallowed his food. “She sure loves you.”

David sighed and remained quiet for a while as he ate his food. Finally, he set the empty plate back on his desk and snapped the lid on it. “Um, I’m really sorry about tonight, Archie.”

“It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. I understand that you got busy.”

The older man wished it were that simple. The truth was, he hadn’t been completely truthful with Archie about forgetting. He’d thought about it a few times during the meeting, but hadn’t really figured that Archie would get worried about him if he didn’t show. He’d never had that problem before. “I should have called.”

Archie nodded. “I wish you would have. I was starting freak out a little.”

David furrowed his brow. “Why?”

Sitting up a little straighter, Archie set his dish on the desk as well. “Um, because I care about you?” He looked at David with a weird expression. “I kept imagining all these bad things that could have happened. I just…I got worried about you.”

David studied Archie for a moment before getting back up and retaking his spot by the window. He remained quiet for a few minutes before he finally was able to work up the nerve to ask Archie something that had been on his mind ever since he’d talked to Andrew. Turning just enough to catch Archie in his peripheral vision, he asked, “Do you feel sorry for me?”

Archie was taken aback by the question. “What?” He asked, still seated at the desk.

“Because of my self-esteem issues, and all the crap I’ve dealt with,” David explained. “Is that why you’ve been so nice to me?”

Archie, sighing, finally got up and walked over to where David stood. “Why would you think that?”

David shrugged. “Because I know my big mouthed brother told you everything.”

With a kind smile, Archie reached out to rest his hand lightly against David’s cheek. “I don’t feel sorry for you,” he said softly. “I feel angry at Allen for making you believe that you’re not good enough.”

Just as Archie was about to say more, David’s cell phone began to ring. He sighed and pulled it out, immediately pressing ignore.

Archie did feel better about the fact that David did ignore that phone call, but the look on his face gave away the fact that it had been difficult. He was amazed by how David’s personality could change drastically. Most of the time he was flamboyant and happy and just full of life, but now he was sad and hurt and just plain confused. Archie wanted nothing more than to help him, but he knew if he wasn’t careful, David would take it the wrong way and it might not turn out how he wanted. “Have you talked to him yet?” he asked, unable to hide his curiosity.

David shook his head. “No. I almost did this morning, but Andrew refused to let me.”

“You know, Andrew is only looking out for you,” Archie reminded him.

“Well, a fine job he’s doing with that.” David turned to Archie, chuckling. “He even has you trying to make me feel good about myself.”

Archie raised a brow upon hearing the cynicism in David’s voice. “What?”

“The way you’ve been all touchy-feely with me lately. Is that your way of making me feel wanted?”

Archie gasped in shock. “Is that what you think?”

David didn’t answer. He simply stared at Archie. All it took was the look in his eyes to answer the question.

“Do you even know what an amazing person you are?” 

David tilted his head to the side with a questioning look.

Archie raised his hand to cup David’s face. “You are, without a doubt the most incredible, kind, and unselfish man that I have ever met,” Archie began. “You’re everything that I have ever wanted and more. Do you know that?”

David shook his head. His body began to tremble at the thought of Archie having such a high opinion of him. He couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing him, which is what he would undoubtedly do. He, however, allowed Archie to lead him over to the sofa near the east wall of the office and sat down with him. “I’m not all that…” Archie pressed a finger to David’s lips to silence him and suddenly he was feeling very vulnerable and at the mercy of a man eight years younger than himself. .

“Listen to me. I know that what Allen did to you has made you question your self-worth. I know that you’re afraid I’ll be disappointed in you.” He used his thumb to gently wipe away some tears that had fallen over David’s cheek. “Nothing about you could disappoint me.”

“But…”

“Cook, I think Allen is the dumbest man on the planet. You’re perfect in my eyes.”

David gave Archie a half-hearted smile, still unsure about how true that was. “But you haven’t exactly seen all of me yet. Ever wonder why I always turn the lights off? Or why I always make sure to stay at least half dressed or under the covers?”

“I know why you do that. I understand that you’re uncomfortable with me seeing you naked. But that doesn’t matter to me, Cook.” Archie let the hand that was on David’s face fall to his chest. “It’s what is in here that I truly care about. So what if you think you have a few extra pounds on you. I don’t care.”

Before David had a chance to protest any more, Archie leaned in and pressed his mouth to his, silencing any further negativity. He moved his body a little bit closer, increasing the pressure of the kiss as his lips glided easily over David’s full ones before he moved to straddle the older man’s thighs. Archie slipped his hands around David’s waist, stealthily untucking his shirt as David’s fingers became tangled in his hair.

David gasped into Archie’s mouth upon feeling warmth of boyfriend’s hands rubbing lightly against his bare skin as he pushed the shirt up just a little.

Archie took his time inching the material up as they kissed languidly. His fingers danced around on David’s lower back, sides, and eventually moved around to his belly, enjoying the feel of the soft flesh beneath his tips.

David whimpered as Archie’s blunt nails scratched against his sensitive skin. No one had ever taken the time to do this before. It was strangely encouraging.

Archie smiled against his lips before breaking their kiss. He tugged at the knot in David’s loose hanging tie, pulling it from around his neck. Then he began to carefully unbutton each button on his shirt, focusing his eyes intently on David’s until the last button was undone. Then he gave David a pleading look, chewing anxiously on his own lower lip as he slipped his hands beneath the material, pushing it over his shoulders.

Reluctantly, David shrugged the garment off, making himself feel exposed and a bit apprehensive. He took a deep, quivering breath as Archie’s eyes raked over his torso. He was staggered to find that he didn’t see a look of disgust or regret. Instead, he saw the younger man’s lips part as a pink tongue darted out to wet them, and his breathing became more labored as he ran the palms of his hands experimentally over the pale physique before him.

Archie shifted his eyes back up to meet David’s. With a smile, Archie pressed his hands against David’s shoulders, twisting his own body in order to guide the older man around to lay down on the plush sofa, allowing his head to rest comfortably against the arm.

A quiet moan slipped through his parted lips when David felt the slight bulge between Archie’s legs settle against his own after Archie had shimmied his body upwards a bit. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes for a moment, needing to clear his clouded mind.

Archie remained still, waiting for David to open his eyes again. Once he had, Archie removed his own shirt and leaned forward, pressing his olive toned chest against David’s alabaster skin. “I think you’re beautiful,” he whispered against David’s ear before taking his earlobe between his lips.

David’s heart rate began to increase and his breathing became a little more labored as Archie kissed along his jaw and then back.

“Just relax, baby,” he whispered as he pushed David’s arms to rest above his head. “This time, it’s all about you.” Archie smiled when he felt David’s body react to his words. “I’m going to make you feel so good. Make you understand that your body is a temple, and it deserves to be worshiped.”

“Oh God,” David squeaked as the low ambiance of Archie’s voice sent shivers down his spine.

Archie dropped his head and latched his mouth onto David’s neck. Slowly, he kissed and licked and sucked his way down over David’s collarbone. He enjoyed the mewling noises that David made when he’d nip or suck on certain sensitive spots. He made his way over to the bleeding-heart tattoo that was inked into David’s chest. Slowly, he traced it with the tip of his tongue before opening his mouth to suck gently on the patch of skin. He couldn’t help but feel sad about the possible meaning behind that particular tattoo. It made him even more determined to make David know that he cared about him.

David moaned and arched his back slightly as Archie’s mouth closed around a nipple and sucked rigorously on the hardening peak. Archie then lavished the same attention on the other one before moving further down, shifting his body to sit on his knees between David’s legs. He took extra time kissing and sucking at the supple flesh around David’s navel before dipping into the small crevasse with a swirl of his tongue.

David watched with heavy-lidded eyes while Archie gave his body the attention that no one else ever had. He shuddered with anticipation as Archie’s tongue slithered wetly along the waistband of his pants.

Archie looked up at David before latching his mouth onto the skin just above the prominent ridge of his pelvic bone. He sucked hard, deliberately leaving a dark, reddened mark that he was sure would be a purple bruise later. “Mine,” he whispered as he glanced up at David, their eyes meeting briefly before Archie reached for the button on his pants.

He undid the button, kissing the tiny bit of sparsely haired skin that it exposed. Slowly, he pulled the zipper down and hooked his fingers in the waistband, pulling the pants as well as the underwear down.

David lifted his hips slightly to allow Archie to pull them further down his thighs. Once Archie had them around his knees, he paused to remove David’s shoes and socks. He then tossed all the discarded clothing to the side and raked his eyes up over David’s legs, landing on his thick, semi-erect penis nestled in patch of light, reddish-brown hair. He unconsciously licked his full lips and exhaled slowly.

“Archie?” David breathed, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Archie lifted his gaze to David’s face. “Beautiful,” he reassured before leaning over his boyfriend. He braced himself with his arms on either side of David as he stared directly into David’s shimmering, hazel eyes. “Everything about you,” he whispered, “is beautiful.” Then he kissed him hungrily, wanting to convey just how strong his feelings were at that moment. When he broke away, he grinned down at his panting lover, satisfied with the look of complete surrender on his face.

“Fuck,” David mumbled as he slipped his hand around the back of Archie’s neck.

Archie didn’t protest when David pulled him back down, tightening his fist in his hair as their lips fused together once more. He could kiss David all day long and never get tired of it. His lips were amazing; full and soft. Soon, though, he began returning his attention to David’s body, leaving a wet trail in his wake.

David left his fingers curled loosely in Archie’s dark hair as the younger man kissed and licked over his belly once more, making delicious, smacking sounds of gratification as he did so. He was soon moving further down, nipping and lapping at the insides of David’s thighs. After a few moments, Archie pulled back slightly, and David rested his arms above his head, watching in anticipation as Archie took his growing erection into his hand, cradling it in his palm.

Archie looked up, locking his gaze on David’s face as he ran his tongue flatly up over the underside of his cock; from base to tip in one swift motion .

The pure beauty of Archie performing such a lewd act forced a moan from deep inside David. “Ahhh!”

Archie slowly slid his mouth down over David, taking in as much as he could. He swirled his tongue over the underside of his erection as he raised his head back up. The gentle whimpers and soft purrs that he received in return were enough for him. He continued to slide his mouth up and down his lover’s cock, taking the time to pay attention to the soft head.

“Hmmm, Archie…” David moaned, arching his hips slightly as his young lover’s mouth moved slickly over his growing penis. “So good…. So good, baby.”

As he continued to devour David’s erection, Archie glanced up, seeing David’s face contorted with a look of pure bliss.

The older man twisted his fingers into Archie’s short hair, tugging slightly as Archie’s hand moved lower to gently massage his balls. “Oh God,” David panted. He watched as the younger man continued licking his shaft, stopping once in a while to suck his balls between his lips.

Archie stroked him a few times with his hand, delighted when he saw little droplets of moisture oozing from the slit. He dipped his tongue into the moisture and spread it around the head of his lover’s cock before taking the tip into his mouth, sucking softly.

David groaned softly feeling his cock twitch. “Oh, yeah baby…”

Archie slid his mouth back down over him, taking in as much of him he could. He rested his hands on David’s thighs as he bobbed his head up and down on the thick shaft.

“Archie…” David panted. “I’m so close….so close baby.” He tightened his fingers in Archie’s hair and tried to rock his hips. Archie wrapped her hand around the base of his cock and squeezed gently as he continued to suck. He felt him coming before the first rope hit the back of his throat.

“Oh Christ!!!!” David shouted, coming hard into his lover’s mouth. “Awwww…baby….” he mumbled, closing his eyes closed as he fell back against the sofa. “So good.”

Archie raised his head and grinned as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He made his way back up David’s body, coming face to face with him. They stared at each other for a moment before David reached up and pulled Archie down for a kiss.

When the kiss ended, Archie smiled down at David before settling between David and the back of the couch. “I care about you, Cook. You’re beautiful and kind and I like everything about you,” he said. “Do you believe me now?”

David turned his head to look at Archie. “Thank you.”

“No,” Archie said softly. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For trusting me.”

“You uh, want to spend the night at my place?”

Archie snuggled against him. “Hmm, I’d like that.”

“Me too.” He chuckled. “Maybe we can continue this there. If you want.”

“Light on?” He asked as he laced his fingers through David’s.

“Light on.”


	16. Chapter 16

The next month or so went smoothly for both David and Archie. David’s self-esteem issues were slowly dissipating, but every now and then Archie could see David’s hesitance to let him see him or to accept a compliment. He knew it was going to be rough for them. Especially since Allen just couldn’t take a hint and stop calling him. Finally, David changed his number once more, hoping that it would work for a while at least.

“You ready to go?” David asked Archie who was sitting on the couch in his apartment, tying his shoes.

“Yeah. Almost.”

They were going down to the shelter to clean out the sleeping quarters. They did a full floor to ceiling scrub down once a month. After that, they were going to help Brooke with some building maintenance.

David grabbed his car keys and waited by the door for Archie to finish up. “Do you want to go to Noriega’s tonight? After we’re done?”

Archie shrugged. “That’s fine with me. I have been craving one of their banana splits for days.”

The tone of his voice made David chuckle. “I know the feeling. I’ve been wanting one of their lattes again.” He frowned. “But I think I should stick with the skim milk this time.”

Archie finished tying his shoe and then looked up at David.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Archie stood up. “Let's go.”

*****

They were halfway done with cleaning when an unexpected visitor showed up. Archie saw him first so he was able to watch David’s reaction when he called his name.

David’s broom came to an abrupt halt and his head snapped up to see the man standing by the door.

“Hi, Dave.”

“What are you doing here?” Archie asked in outrage.

Allen looked at the younger man giving him a confused look. “Excuse me?”

“Archie…” David pleaded. “Please. Just stay out of this.”

Allen turned his attention back to David and smiled, giving him his trademark sexy grin. “How have you been, baby?”

“I’ve been well.”

“Great. I’m glad to hear that. Can we get out of here for a while?”

David opened his mouth to speak, but no word escaped. He turned his head to look at Archie who was still standing nearby watching.

Archie locked eyes with David who looked utterly torn. Then the moment was broken when David’s eyes left his to land on Allen. “Um, I…” he sighed. “Just give me a few minutes?”

Allen nodded and walked out the door.

“Archie,” David whispered.

Archie steeled himself and refused to let his emotions get the best of him. He knew the moment that Allen walked through that door, it was over. The look on David’s face spoke volumes. “Just go.”

“Please listen?”

“Cook!” Archie felt his throat getting tighter and he knew he wouldn’t be able to choke back the tears much longer. “Just go!”

David knew by the look in Archie’s eyes that he was very serious and that there would be no negotiating, so he turned away. Slowly and feeling very dejected, he walked towards the same exit that Allen had gone though.

“Dave, don’t look so down,” Allen said as he joined him on the sidewalk and slung an arm around him. “It’s not very attractive.”

David shrugged his arm away as they walked down the street to the parking garage where he’d parked his car a few hours earlier. “We need to talk.”

“Well, what fun is that?” Allen asked as they reached David’s car where he proceeded to press him up against the driver’s side door, causing him to gasp and close his eyes. “That’s my baby.”

“Allen,” David breathed as the other man leaned in and began placing kisses on his exposed neck. David put his hands flat against Allen’s chest and shoved him backwards. “No.”

Allen was shocked by David’s reaction. He’d never done that before. Ever. “What the fuck, Dave?”

“You’re not going to do this again, Allen.” David was seething. “For years, I have let you get away with it, but I’m tired of feeling like a piece of garbage. I’m better than that.”

Allen put on his best sympathetic smile and shook his head slightly. “I know you’re angry, Dave. You probably have every right to be. I have been…”

“Just shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear anymore of your excuses and empty promises. I’ve wasted too much time on you.”

“What are you saying?”

David gave him an unimpressed look. “I can’t believe you have to ask. What I am saying is that I have finally wised up, and I want you out of my life for good.”

“You don’t mean that,” Allen said with a lazy smile. He knew David. He would be over his little tantrum in a matter of minutes and Allen would have what he wanted. Just like always. “Remember all the good times, Sweetie?”

David rolled his eyes. “Good times? You mean all the sex?”

“Hey,” Allen shrugged. “You have to admit, when it was good, it was good.”

“Yeah,” David agreed. “It was good.”

Allen grinned. Just what he wanted to hear. 

“Until it was over and you told me how disgusting I was. How unattractive my body was.”

“Baby, you know I was drunk a lot of those times. I never meant it. You have a…” Allen raked his eyes over David’s tight jeans and fitted-tee. “A nice body.”

“Oh save the bullshit, Allen. Do you have any idea what that did to me? To my self-esteem? It made me feel so negatively about myself that I thought I had to be grateful to you, Allen, for tolerating me, because who in the world could possibly want me?”

“Baby, please…” Allen began. “I know we’ve had some rough times, and I am so sorry. I’ve changed. I want to make us work this time.”

Snorting, David shook his head in disgust. “You actually think that is going to work this time?” Then he threw his hands in the air. “Of course you do!” David suddenly went off on a tangent about why he might think it would work. “You think it will work because it has so many times in the past.” It was an almost laughable matter to him now. He couldn’t believe how naïve he’d been. “Six fucking times, Allen. Six times, I took you back. I was so fucking madly in love with your sorry ass that I made myself believe that someday you would change. If you really loved me, you would change. I’m through waiting for that to happen.”

“Ba…”

“And don’t fucking call me baby. I’m not your baby! I’m not your anything. And I’m especially not your personal ATM.”

Allen looked at him in shock. Ok. Maybe this wasn’t going the way he wanted it to. “What changed?” He finally asked after studying David’s body language for a moment.

David was shocked by the tone in Allen’s voice. So shocked that he forgot what he’d been asked in the first place. “What?”

“What changed your feelings for me?”

“I…I’ve moved on.”

“To who? Archie? Oh my God, Dave. He’s a kid.”

“He’s a better man than you.”

“I bet be can’t make you feel like I do,” Allen said smugly as he reached out and ran his fingers lightly over David’s cheek. “Oh well, I don’t think it matters now anyway.” He withdrew his hand and stuffed it in his pocket. “I’m pretty sure that you just screwed up whatever thing you had with him when you walked out that door to follow me.”

*****

When David got back to the shelter, he couldn’t find Archie anywhere, so he went to Brooke. “Where is he?”

“If by he, you mean Archie, he left.”

David didn’t even bother to say goodbye. He just stormed out of the building, feeling his stomach clench and unclench nervously at the thought of losing Archie. When he arrived at Archie’s apartment, he parked along the curb and ran inside and up the stairs. He stopped outside of Archie’s door for a moment to catch his breath. Then he began pounding on the door. “Archie?” He shouted when he received no answer, he tried again. “Archie, please open the door.” He pounded on the door a little bit harder. “I know you’re in there.”

Still, there was no answer. “Jesus, Archie. Please?” He pressed his forehead against the door and closed his eyes. “Look, I’m sorry about leaving with Allen, but I had to. I had…” He felt tears trickling down over his cheeks. “I had to tell him about you,” he gasped. “I had to tell him that it was over with him. For good this time.” He pounded his fist against the door once more. “I’m in love with you, Archie.”

He sobbed, realizing what he’d just said. It was the first time he’d said it out loud. He hoped his confession would be enough to get the door opened, but it wasn’t. He turned around with his back to the door and slid down to the floor. “I love you, Archie,” he whispered, feeling helpless.

“Cook?”

His head snapped up at the sound of Archie’s voice. He was standing at the top of the stairwell, looking at him with a confused expression.

Cautiously, he moved closer to David and dropped down to his knees to sit in front of him. “Cook,” he whispered, reaching out to stroke his cheek, catching a few tears with his thumb.

David didn’t say a word, he just stared at Archie through eyes blurred by his tears and brought his own hand up to wrap around Archie’s wrist.

“Did you mean it?” Archie asked in a whisper.

David nodded his head, never breaking their stare. He’d meant that more than anything he’d ever said in his whole life.

Archie smiled. He felt like his heart might explode with happiness at that moment. Gently, he ran his thumb over David’s full bottom lip before leaning in and pressing his mouth against David’s. It was a tender, sweet kiss that ended way before David would have liked. “I,” Archie confessed as he pulled his lips away. “I love you, too.” He smiled seeing David’s bewildered look. “Come on.” Archie got up and took David’s hand, pulling him up as well.

While Archie pulled out his keys to unlock the door, David stood nervously behind him. He’d actually never had this range of emotions hitting him all at once before. It was causing him to feel a little bit buzzed. “I, uh, I told him that it was over for ever this time.”

Archie looked back over his shoulder. “I know. I heard.” He’d been walking up the street when he saw David go inside his building. He followed him up the steps, but had stopped to listen when David began shouting through the door. Once he’d unlocked the door, instead of going inside, he turned back to David. “I’m proud of you, ya know?” He reached up and ran his fingers through David’s, sweat-dampened hair. “It’s never easy to close the book on a chapter of your life.”

David choked back more tears as Archie continued to show him more care and concern than anyone aside from his family ever had. He wasn’t sure what exactly he did to deserve Archie, but whatever it was, he was glad he did it.

“But,” Archie continued, curling his fingers around David’s hand. “With every ending, there is a new beginning.” He turned back to his door and went inside, taking David with him. He threw his keys down on the end table beside the couch and led him through the living room and down the hall to the bedroom.

Once they were in the room, Archie looked up into David’s eyes. “Cook?”

“Yeah, Arch?” He answered as his heart rate began to speed up. It was just the way that Archie was looking at him.

Archie took both of David’s hands in his and laced their fingers together. “I want you to make love to me.”


	17. Chapter 17

Slowly and with great care, the two men undressed each other while standing in Archie’s bedroom. Somewhere between their gentle, unhurried kisses, David asked Archie if he was sure. They had never crossed this line before and David didn’t want him to feel pressured by his declaration of love.

Archie didn’t hesitate with his answer. “I want it. I’ve been waiting,” he said breathlessly in between kisses. “I just…”

“Do you have?”

“Yeah,” Archie nodded before reaching behind David to grab a small bottle of lubricant and a condom from the drawer of his dresser.

Then their lips joined again and David maneuvered them closer to the bed and lowered them to the mattress. “God, Archie. I’ve wanted this for so long,” he said while they lay on their sides, facing each other.

Archie didn’t reply. He only reached up, taking David’s face in his hands, holding him until their eyes met. “I love you, David Cook.”

David smiled. “I love you too, David Archuleta.”

Archie grinned before closing the gap between their lips. Their kisses were soft and lazy as their hands wandered languidly over each other’s body. David shifted slightly to dip his head into the curve of Archie’s neck. He kissed and sucked gently while one hand cradled Archie’s head and the other slid over his hip.

Archie gasped, feeling David’s fingers curl around him. Swiping his tongue over his bottom lip, he lowered his own hand to return the favor. David groaned in response before moving to kiss Archie again.

They stayed in that position for several long moments, just tasting and stroking each other until they were at full length and hard. Archie pulled his hand away first and began trailing tender kisses down over David’s torso, stopping only to lap softly at his nipples and to suck on the sensitive junction below his hip.

Rolling onto his back, David watched Archie take his length into his hand once more. The younger man slid his hand up the stalk and over the head, gathering the pool of moisture in the palm of his hand before moving back down, pulling the skin taut. “Oh yeah,” David sighed when Archie’s lips encircled the plump head of his cock, teasing the slit with the tip of his tongue. Archie glanced back at David when he felt his hands on his hips, tugging him towards him. “C’mere, baby,” he coaxed.

Archie complied and moved his lower half over David, putting them in a sixty-nine. Then he turned his attention back to David’s erection, lowering his mouth down on him as far as he could before pulling back up. He closed his eyes, feeling David’s hands on his backside, kneading gently at his firm bottom. “Oh gosh…” he shuddered, as one of David’s hands wrapped around his penis at the same time his tongue licked a long path from his scrotum to his tailbone. He tried to concentrate on sucking David, but what David was doing to him was far too distracting. He settled for just licking and kissing his lover’s thick erection, wondering for the first time if he’d be able to handle all of him. He was so long and so thick. Much larger than anything Archie was used to.

David was being gentle with him, using his mouth and tongue to relax him while his hand continued jerking his cock, keeping it hard. When he pushed the tip of his first finger past the barrier, Archie’s whole body shivered. “Mmm,” he moaned, feeling David’s finger sliding slowly into him.

“God, Archie,” David whispered as he worked the single finger in and out of his lover. “You’re so tight.” It was true. David had never felt such gripping warmth. He felt a jolt of electricity course through his veins as he thought of how snug his cock was going to fit when he buried himself inside of his young boyfriend.

Archie latched his mouth onto the base of David’s cock, sucking hard and whimpering at the same time. He then felt David pull his finger away, replacing it with the cold, wetness of lubricant that trickled down over his entrance.

David rubbed the slick liquid over Archie, massaging the tight ring of muscle until the tip of his middle finger slipped inside with ease. He worked it in and out for a moment before he tried working a second in with it. He bit his lip when he felt Archie’s body clamp down around his fingers at the same time that his hand tightened around the base of his cock. “Okay?”

“Mm hmm,” Archie replied through lips that were pressed together tightly. “Feels good,” he added as his body relaxed.

David managed to fit a third finger into him, and he twisted them about until Archie pushed back against them while begging for more. Finally, he pulled them away and patted David’s butt. “Ok, baby. Ready?”

Archie nodded his head and climbed off of David, lying back on the mattress beside of him. He watched as David got up and leaned over him. Reaching up, he ran his hands over David’s arms, squeezing at his biceps while the older man rubbed his hands over the insides of Archie’s thighs, spreading them apart so he could position himself between them.

David reached for the condom and ripped the small packet open. He carefully rolled it on while Archie stared intently. “Archie,” David said with a grin. “You’re giving me a complex.”

Archie’s cheeks heated up. “Oh. Sorry. It’s just that… Gosh, Cook. Your…it’s…wow.”

With an arch of his brow, David looked at Archie for a second before a smile formed on his lips and he placed his hands under Archie’s knees. He gently pushed them back, giving himself more room. Archie grabbed his legs and held them while David picked up the lube and poured a generous amount onto his hand before rubbing it onto himself and Archie. “Ready?” He asked once more, just to be sure.

Licking his suddenly dry lips, Archie nodded his head. “Mm hmm.” He watched in anticipation as David guided his heavy cock to his entrance and carefully pressed the head against him. His mouth fell open and a small grunt could be heard as David’s tip pushed inside.

Gauging his lover’s facial expressions, David continued to push in slowly until he was all the way in, surround by a delicious heat. His body screamed at him to move, but he knew he needed to give Archie time to adjust, so he sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to calm himself. “God, baby,” he said with a low growl. “Tell me when you want me to move.”

Archie swallowed thickly, trying to concentrate on relaxing a bit more. “Ok,” he replied breathily. “You can…” he gasped. “You can move.”

Carefully, David eased back, pulling almost out before sliding back in, listening to the passion filled sounds coming from Archie. He continued moving like that for a few moments with his hands holding firmly to Archie’s ankles, just relishing in the way he felt to be encompassed by such warmth. Finally, he leaned over, covering Archie’s smaller body with his as their lips met in an erotic kiss.

“Mm,” Archie moaned into David’s mouth as he wrapped his arms around his neck, and they kissed in rhythm with David’s hips that were rocking against him, driving his length deeper with each thrust.

When Archie pulled away from his mouth, letting out an orgasm-inducing moan, David dragged his lips along Archie’s jaw to his ear where he sucked gently before whispering, “Fuck, baby. This is so good.” The roughness in his voice sent a shiver down Archie’s spine, making the younger man arch up beneath him and wrap his legs tightly around him. David groaned, feeling Archie’s heels digging into his back, urging him on. He gradually increased his speed and soon Archie was squirming below him, begging for more.

David complied and rose back up. He lifted Archie’s legs, placing them against his chest before he began to thrust hard and fast into him, feeling little beads of sweat breaking out all over his body. He watched, biting his lip as Archie reached down and wrapped a hand around his own hard erection and began jerking it in time with his thrust. “Oh shit, baby. You look so hot right now,” he panted.

Within moments, Archie was arching his back and clamping down on David as spurts of cum splattered over his already sweat-covered belly. “Oh… Oh… Gosh.”

David wasn’t far behind, thrusting into Archie a few more times before he came, shuddering and grunting as he released his load into the condom. He remained still, catching his breath as he turned his head and placed tiny kisses against Archie calf. “Fuck, Archie….”

Archie lay still, breathing heavily. He’d never felt as good as he did right then. He was almost disappointed when David pulled out and busied himself with discarding the condom, but that feeling dissipated once David was back at his side, pulling him close. “I love you,” he whispered.

David smiled and pressed a gentle kiss against his lover’s lips. “I love you, too.”

Archie closed his eyes, sighing contentedly while David slid down his body to clean up the remains of Archie’s orgasm. He threaded his fingers idly through David’s hair, staring adoringly at his lover while he lapped amorously at his belly. Then David trailed his lips back up to Archie’s ear. “Move in with me,” he suggested between placing kisses on Archie’s neck.

Archie’s breath caught in his throat. He hadn’t really been expecting that. “What?”

David pulled back and looked at Archie. “I want you to move in.” 

“Um…” he wasn’t quite sure what to say. “I…I…” He looked up into David’s eyes. That was all it took for him to make up his mind. “Ok.”

“Yeah?” David asked in shock. Archie had just enough time to nod his head before David pressed his mouth to Archie’s, kissing him deeply, putting all of his excitement and relief into the kiss. “That makes me so happy,” he said once they’d parted.

Archie smiled up at him. “Me too.”

David then snuggled closer to Archie and pulled the blanket up over them. Archie settled against David, holding him closely, loving the fact that David liked to cuddle. “Can we do this every night?” Archie giggled at David’s question. “What? I’m serious. That was awesome sex.”

Archie blushed. “Oh my gosh.”

David grinned, but then his expression turned serious. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For loving me.”

Archie felt the sting of tears behind his eyes. He thought about how when he’d first met David he hadn’t even thought of them as being friends, but somehow, this man; this wonderful man had made him fall. He made him fall so deeply in love with him. “Oh,” he said softly as he reached up and brushed his hand over David’s cheek. “You made it easy.”


	18. Epilogue

Archie and Lupe along with the remaining few members of Archie’s family stood in front of David’s first completed building, waiting for the dedication to begin. David had invited them all, wanting to share his big day with the person he was undeniably head over heels in love with. There were huge tarps draped over the front of the building to serve as a curtain, preventing its identity until the speeches were made. Archie was giddy with excitement. He was so proud of David. He couldn’t wait to celebrate this milestone with him.

He was surprised when David joined him in the crowd. “Shouldn’t you be up there?” He asked, pointing towards the podium that was in front of the hidden building.

David wrapped his arms around Archie from behind and rested his chin on his shoulder. “Nah. Drew is much better at this. Besides, I want to watch the unveiling with you guys.”

Archie made no complaints and turned his attention to Andrew who was stepping up to the podium. He began his speech by telling the few people in the audience that the whole project and design had been David’s idea, giving him full credit. Archie smiled brightly and squeezed David’s arm that was still wrapped around him. “I remember the day I found out what his plans were. I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea to be honest. In fact, I called him crazy and told him that he’d lost his mind. I couldn’t understand how a building like this could possibly benefit the company or this area, I still don’t know for sure that it will, but at least now I understand his motive.” Archie was sure that Andrew looked straight at him on purpose when he said that part. He shrugged it off and turned his attention back to Andrew’s speech. 

“This building signifies what this town used to be. It will serve as a constant reminder of what once was the heart of this community; what was destroyed by the selfishness of one greedy person and his million-dollar company. Today, that same company is owned and ran by that person’s descendants. My brother and I feel terrible about how our uncle preyed upon this community and we want to make it up to you folks. The first thing we’re going to do is try to give back what was lost. One building at a time.” He paused and smiled down at David and Archie and his family. “It is with sincere apology and renewed hope that we bring to you the first of many to come.” He signaled for the workers to drop the curtain. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present you, Archie’s Diner and Malt Shoppe.”

David waited with baited breath for Archie’s reaction to the building as it was made visible. It was almost identical to the original, complete with the neon pink and blue signage.

Archie stared in disbelief at the scene in front of him while Lupe put a hand over her mouth and began to cry. “Cook,” he finally managed.

David could tell that the reactions from Archie and Lupe and even Claudia were positive ones even though they had yet to say so. “It’s yours baby,” he whispered in his ear.

Within seconds, Archie had turned around and thrown his arms around his boyfriend. “I love you!”

“Do you like it?” David asked after hearing Archie’s quiet sobs.

“Like it?” Archie asked with a hiccup. “I…I…oh my gosh, Cook. This is…I can’t even think of a way to describe this. I love it.”

“There is an upstairs apartment for your Mom and siblings so she won’t have to travel and the kids will be closer to school. She can do what she loves again. I even put a set of shelves in behind the counter so she can sell that amazing jelly that she makes.”

Lupe wiped her eyes and smiled at her son and the man who had single handedly changed their world. She was grateful.

David pulled back from Archie’s embrace to give him a soft kiss before pulling away completely to face Lupe.

“Oh, David,” she said, her voice cracking with raw emotion. “You don’t know how much this means to me; to us.”

David took her hands in his. “It was the least I could do,” he said with a smile. “Would you like to see inside?” She nodded and he reached back for Archie’s hand and held on to Lupe’s as well. He led them both into the building with the rest of the Archuleta clan and Adam trailing behind. He showed them around the diner and the kitchen before going up the steps to the apartment.

“Oh,” Archie said as he looked around the apartment. “Baby, this is beautiful. What do you think, Mama?”

Lupe shook her head in awe. She could barely believe what was going on. It was like a dream come true. “Sweetie, the only thing that could make this moment better was if your father were here to share it with us.”

David stepped back and watched solemnly as Archie went to his mom and hugged her while Claudia and Adam stood nearby with the other three children. Lupe looked at him over Archie’s shoulder and she lifted her hand to motion him to them. When he approached, Lupe pulled away from Archie and embraced David, hugging him tightly. “Thank you so much, David. You didn’t have to do this.”

“But I wanted to,” David explained.

She stepped back, still holding onto his arms. “You’re a good man, David Cook. I am so glad to have you in our lives. You’re the best thing to happen to this family in years.”

David was rendered speechless. To hear that from Lupe meant the world to him. “I…wow. Um, I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, Sweetheart. This is more than enough,” she gesturing to the room surrounding them. She smiled once more and then walked away, taking the rest of the family with her except Archie to look at the rest of the apartment.

David looked at Archie with tears in his eyes. “Have I told you lately how much I love your mom?”

Archie smiled warmly and slipped his arms around David. “You are amazing.” He laid his head on David’s chest and the older man slipped his arms around him too. “I’m never letting you go.”

David laughed softly, resting his chin on Archie’s head. “I should hope not.”

“Mmm, I never thought I could love someone as much as I love you.”

“Archie?” David said hesitantly while staring at the floor. Archie confession sent his mind reeling.

“Yeah?”

“There is one more thing.”

Archie looked up at David and the older man stepped back holding on to his hands. “Ok…”

David took a deep breath, unsure of how to say what he needed to say. He looked at Archie once again wondering what he’d done to deserve someone like him. After a moment of just looking at him, he decided to just go with it and say what he felt. “Archie, I have never in my life loved someone as much as I love you. The way I feel about you is so unlike anything I have ever felt.” He took a shaky breath and looked down for a second before meeting Archie’s eyes with his own. “I know we’ve only known each other for a less than a year and you just, ya know, moved in and all, but…”

Archie’s eyes grew wide and his heart leaped into his throat when David dropped to his knee in front of him.

“I don’t see myself ever wanting to be with anyone else. I love you so much, Archie.”

“Cook…”

“Marry me?”

Archie blinked and his whole body began to tremble. “Oh gosh…”

David stared up at Archie, silently praying that he wouldn’t shut him down. “Please, Archie?”

With tears forming in his eyes, he sunk down to his knees in front of David. “Cook, I…” he reached up and brushed his thumb over David’s cheek. “I love you.”

Suddenly David felt certain that he’d screwed up. He moved way too fast. Too much too soon. His heart began to thump in his chest “Oh God,” he whispered. “This is too fast isn’t it? You’re not ready for that. Oh Archie. I’m sorry. Forget I said anything. I just want to be with you.”

Archie shook his head, trying to give David an encouraging smith through his blubbering. “No. No, baby. It’s ok.”

David couldn’t stop the tears that were spilling over his cheeks, but he felt a little better when Archie brushed away his tears with his thumbs. He sucked in a deep breath and tried to stay calm, figuring that he hadn’t messed things up too bad.

“I love you, Cook. I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to marry you.”

“Really?”

Archie nodded his head, smiling. “Really.”

Both of them heard cheering and applauds coming from the doorway so they turned to see Archie’s family, Adam, and Andrew standing there with smiles on their faces.

Archie felt his cheeks heat up and he turned his head back around, hiding his face against David’s chest. “Oh gosh!”

David chuckled and pulled Archie into a tight hug and pressed his face against his neck. “Yeah.”

~THE END~

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos are great! Comments are better! <3


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